So, if you don’t fit in, if you feel at odds with the world, if your identity is troubled and frayed, if you feel lost and ashamed - it could be because you have retained the human values you were supposed to have discarded. You are a deviant. Be proud.
Interpretation
Being different can be a sign of holding onto important human values.
This quote speaks to the idea that feeling out of place or troubled in a conformist society may indicate a deeper connection to fundamental human values that others have abandoned. It encourages individuals to embrace their uniqueness and be proud of their deviancy as a testament to their integrity and authenticity.
In practice
A motivational speaker could use this quote to encourage youth to embrace their uniqueness.
The notions that nature exists to serve us; that its value consists of the instrumental benefits we can extract; that this value can be measured in cash terms; and that what can't be measured does not matter, have proved lethal to the rest of life on Earth.
I believe that anyone who wants to stand in a national election should receive a course of psychotherapy. Completing the course should be a qualification for office. This wouldn't change the behaviour of psychopaths, but it might prevent some people who exercise power from imposing their own deep wounds on others.
I became an environmentalist because I love the living world, but I spend much of my life thinking about electricity, industrial processes and civil engineering.
Places that have become agricultural deserts, trashed by giant corporations, could be reforested, drawing carbon dioxide from the air on a vast scale. The ecosystems of land and sea could recover, not just in pockets but across great tracts of the planet.
Never underestimate the power of intrinsic values. They inspire every struggle for a better world.
Why is it so easy to save the banks - but so hard to save the biosphere?
Capitalism does not permit an even flow of economic resources. With this system, a small privileged few are rich beyond conscience, and almost all others are doomed to be poor at some level. That's the way the system works. And since we know that the system will not change the rules, we are going to have to change the system.
With equality of experience and of general faculties, a woman usually sees much more than a man of what is immediately before her.
The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor.
There is object proof that homosexuality is more interesting than heterosexuality. It's that one knows a considerable number of heterosexuals who would wish to become homosexuals, whereas one knows very few homosexuals who would really like to become heterosexuals.
I think that all things, in their way, reflect heavenly truth, the imagination not least.
Ordinary life goes on--that has saved many a man's reason.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.