George Carlin Quotes

Don't be a prisoner of your own style!

As soon as something becomes 'trendy,' I go off it. I hate the idea of being a sheep and just following a look because I've been told it's fashionable. Individuality makes the world a much more interesting place.

There are forces working in the world as never before in the history of mankind for standardization, for the regimentation of us all, or what I like to call making muffins of us, muffins all like every other muffin in the muffin tin. This is the limited universe, the drying dissipating universe that we can help our children to avoid by providing them with ‘explosive material capable of stirring up fresh life endlessly'.

As far as I have seen, at school...they aimed at blotting out one's individuality.

And what is a good citizen? Simply one who never says, does or thinks anything that is unusual. Schools are maintained in order to bring this uniformity up to the highest possible point. A school is a hopper into which children are heaved while they are still young and tender; therein they are pressed into certain standard shapes and covered from head to heels with official rubber-stamps.

I've always dressed myself, even when I was younger. My parents didn't pick out my clothes or anything. They let me do that, which I think is an important thing because it allows for kids to experiment and figure out what they like, even at a young age.

People tell me what to do every single day. They think I'm boring. I'm Disney kid. So, there's that.

It's a metaphor for what we're being told: "Just stay in the box, kid, don't muddy the water." Parents say it to their kids. Teachers say it. Schools do. And so people become immune to the sameness.

If you try all different styles that are in vogue, I think you con yourself. Me, I just stick by my guns; I don't want to play out of another man's bag.

There's something artistic about skating. A psychologist could tell you exactly why that is, but I think there's something much more expressive that gives you a lot of room for unique and individual expression. Whatever you're interested in can become something you kind of own in your group of skater friends.

Bobbed hair makes women look uniform. They lack individuality.

A graduation ceremony is an event where the commencement speaker tells thousands of students dressed in identical caps and gowns that 'individuality' is the key to success.

In a society that tries to standardize thinking, individuality is not highly prized.

I went to a Catholic school, so of course we had to wear uniforms. My only form of expression was in shoes and the style of my hair.

I'm not a slave to fashion; I'm into exercising my individuality.

I love to write. I used to be a math teacher. And I like the idea that other people could write about the same subjects, but no one would write it just the way I do. It's very individual: a child could write the same story as somebody else, but it wouldn't come out the same.

There's no way to describe what I do. It's just me.

I didn't care too much for ballet, because you had to be more disciplined, and you sort of looked like everyone else. It required a certain kind of conformity that I didn't feel like I wanted to do.

I didn't want to be the typical teen idol. I didn't want to be Leif Garrett. I didn't want to be Shaun Cassidy, David Cassidy or Parker Stevenson. I wanted to do my own thing.

I don't want other people to decide who I am. I want to decide that for myself. I want to avoid becoming too styled and too 'done' and too generic. You see people as they go through their career, and they just become more and more like everyone else.

Guys is supposed to be able to be original and dress like how they want to dress. The NBA can't dress no grown man.

As a film-maker, I certainly don't want to be put into some box.

For our senior picture, they said, 'Black or navy blazer.' And I thought, Why do I want to look like everybody else?

Whoever my films are about, they'll hopefully still have my sensibility, whatever that is.

I feel like I'm just trying to pave my own lane and just kind of make my own sound.