Top 62 Eccentric Quotes

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Being eccentric means being unconventional and slightly strange. With that in mind, check out the top 62 eccentric quotes.

#62 – 60. Eccentric Quotes

62. The mind always functions in an eccentric way, the mind is always an idiot. The really intelligent person has no mind. Intelligence arises out of no-mind, idiocy out of the mind. Mind is idiotic, no-mind is wise. No-mind is wisdom, intelligence. Mind depends on knowledge, on methods, on money, on experience, on this and that. Mind always needs props, it needs supports, it cannot exist on its own. On its own, it flops. – Rajneesh

61. The Paris slums are a gathering-place for eccentric people – people who have fallen into solitary, half-mad grooves of life and given up trying to be normal or decent. Poverty frees them from ordinary standards of behavior, just as money frees people from work. – George Orwell

60. To become a person does not necessarily mean to be well adjusted, well adapted, approved of by others. It means to become who you are. We are meant to become more eccentric, more peculiar, more odd. We are not meant just to fit in. We are here to be different. We are here to be the individual. – James Hollis

#59 – 50. Eccentric Quotes

59. The really great eccentrics are all inimitable; they are not possessed by a single oddity; they are, in their deepest selves, unlike the generality of mankind. – Robertson Davies

58. One may have a right to be unconventional and even eccentric, so long as one is fully competent and a decent person; but one’s ideal as a professor should be to conduct oneself as an admirable human being: just, kind, tolerant, competent, committed, and good-humored. – Robert Audi

57. A dash of eccentric glamour gives you the power to keep the wrong kind of men away. – Isabel Toledo

56. Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage which it contained. – John Stuart Mill

55. The artist’s task is to become a successful eccentric, a strange but wise duck able to venture out of solitary confinement and mingle among society. – Eric Maisel

54. People of uncommon abilities generally fall into eccentricities when their sphere of life is not adequate to their abilities. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

53. If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. – Henry David Thoreau

52. It is to the eccentrics that the world owes most of its knowledge. – Rose Macaulay

51. ECCENTRICITY, n. A method of distinction so cheap that fools employ it to accentuate their incapacity. – Ambrose Bierce

50. They eccentrics are explosive mixtures. Some of them are as sensitive as those fulminates which can be detonated by a falling leaf. – Gilbert Highet

#49 – 40. Eccentric Quotes

49. Uniqueness is like a signature, nobody can forge it’s exact copy.  – Michael Bassey Johnson

48. Genius is a wretched, blind maniac, whose eccentricities are condoned because of what is got from him. – Lev Shestov

47. Contrary to what is often assumed, the meaning of eccentricity is neither timeless nor self-evident. The very synonyms used to define it–bizarre, singular, original, peculiar, odd–suggest the frustration of rationality and the failure of the codes by which social and mental life is interpreted. Indeed, the concept owed its success precisely to its ability to adapt to new contexts. – Miranda Gill

46. You must not blame me if I do talk to the clouds. – Henry David Thoreau

45. Eccentricity is not, as dull people would have us believe, a form of madness. It is often a kind of innocent pride, and the man of genius and the aristocrat are frequently regarded as eccentrics because genius and aristocrat are entirely unafraid of and uninfluenced by the opinions and vagaries of the crowd. – Edith Sitwell

44. Here is what happens in middle age: Some friends and acquaintances who were merely eccentric for years become unmistakably mad. – Jenny Offill

43. Eccentricity is always defined in relation to something it is not, but the imaginary ‘centre’ (or ‘centricity’) from which it departs is far from stable. – Miranda Gill

42. There is all the difference in the world between departure from recognised rules by one who has learned to obey them, and neglect of them through want of training or want of skill or want of understanding. Before you can be eccentric you must know where the circle is. – Ellen Terry

41. The eccentricities of a person can not be drawn with a conventional compass tool. – Khang Kijarro Nguyen

40. The amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of the time. – John Stuart Mill

#39 – 30. Eccentric Quotes

39. Eccentric men have peculiar habits; they do not seem to move in the same sphere with other mortals, but are actuated by different influences from those which affect the bulk of mankind. – George Frederick Graham

38. Before you can be eccentric, you must know where the circle is. – Ellen Terry

37. Eccentricity comes from the mind and a playfulness about life and language, manifesting itself in real individualistic character. – Coulter Watt

36. At first, I did stories on people who were maybe just eccentric. Omar was a natural progression from that. – Jon Ronson

35. All eccentricities are defects of natural character. – Norman Macdonald

34. What am I in the eyes of most people – a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person – somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then – even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart. – Vincent Van Gogh

33. You know, so I was a weird eccentric kid but I did believe in the power of the word and of the word being made flesh I suppose, which again I suppose came from my temperament as well as my upbringing. – Thomas Keneally

32. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric. – Bertrand Russell

31. Eccentric old ladies on Harleys I can deal with. – Alison Larkin

30. I am not eccentric. It’s just that I am more alive than most people. I am an unpopular electric eel set in a pond of catfish. – Edith Sitwell

#29 – 20. Eccentric Quotes

29. Normality is the new eccentric. – Criss Jami

28. If this work seems so threatening, this is because it isn’t simply eccentric or strange, but competent, rigorously argued, and carrying conviction. – Jacques Derrida

27. Most people are much more unusual and complicated and eccentric and playful and creative than they have time to express. – Oliver Herring

26. Everybody thought I was a bit of an eccentric for wanting to be out there looking at the stars, but I still do – Brian May

25. Eccentricity is sometimes found connected with genius, but it does not coalesce with true wisdom. Hence men of the first order of intellect have never betrayed it; and hence also men of secondary talents drop it as they grow wiser; they are content to awaken regard and obtain applause by the rectitude and gracefulness of their going, rather than to make passengers stare and laugh, by leaping over the wall or tumbling along the road. – William Jay

24. Eccentricity, to be socially acceptable, had still to have at least four or five generations of inbreeding behind it. – Osbert Lancaster

23. Eccentrics are ridiculed from a distance, but gain respect the more you know them. – Isaac Cheifetz

22. Weirdism is definitely the cornerstone of many an artist’s career. – E.A. Bucchianeri

21. The world thinks eccentricity in great things is genius, but in small things, only crazy. – Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

20. Sure, my childhood was unusual. All these eccentric, wild people frequented our home: rock stars, drag queens, models, bikers, freaks. But I was not this little rich girl. My mom and I lived in an apartment. – Liv Tyler

#19 – 10. Eccentric Quotes

19. Eccentrics are invariably social failures–at least if we use the word failure in its conventional sense. At best the world fails to take them seriously, and at worst it ridicules them. Eccentrics also tend to be financial failures, due in part, no doubt, to their lack of social standing. When eccentrics prosper, there are generally two explanations: either they inherited a fortune or they found a way to get rewarded for their obsessive behavior. – William B. Irvine

18. There’s a fine line between eccentrics and geniuses. If you’re a little ahead of your time, you’re an eccentric, and if you’re too late, you’re a failure, but if you hit it right on the head, you’re a genius. – Thomas Watson, Jr.

17. It’s amazing what passing the half-century mark does to free one to be eccentric. – Madeleine L’engle

16. It’s important to keep the eccentric spirit alive, because when that goes, the work will go.  – Nicolas Cage

15. Eccentricity is not, as some would believe, a form of madness. It is often a kind of innocent pride, and the man of genius and the aristocrat are frequently regarded as eccentrics because genius and aristocrat are entirely unafraid of and uninfluenced by the opinions and vagaries of the crowd. – Edith Sitwell

14. When I’m writing a novel, I’m dealing with a double life. I live in the present at the same time that I live in the past with my characters. It is this that makes a novelist so eccentric and unpleasant. – John Phillips

13. Those with the money are eccentric. Those without, insane. – Bruce Robinson

12. That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time. – John Stuart Mill

11. I love the part of Hector as it takes me back to playing eccentric parts. He is a funny character, which is fine by me as I’ve been playing for laughs for decades now! It’s lovely to get a laugh; it’s the best thing in the world! – Richard Briers

10. It’s okay to be eccentric if you’re rich; otherwise you’re just crazy. – Yvon Chouinard

#9 – 1. Eccentric Quotes

9. I hope I’m becoming more eccentric. More room in the brain. – Tom Waits

8. Eccentric doesn’t bother me. ‘Eccentric’ being a poetic interpretation of a mathematical term meaning something that doesn’t follow the lines – that’s okay. – Crispin Glover

7. Eccentric people have these happy obsessive preoccupations, and a wonderful, unusual sense of humor, and this gives them a significant meaning in life. And they are far healthier than most people because of that. – David Weeks

6. Eccentricity is developed monomania. – Bayard Taylor

5. A man should be himself at all times; eccentricities, and even inaccuracies, are more tolerable than mimicry, affectation, and false consequences. – Samuel Hanson Cox

4. The only way to become an eccentric is to end your relationship with extroverts. – Michael Bassey Johnson

3. Tom is the most eccentric person I have ever worked with. We get on very well and I am most impressed with how he can hold an audience in the palm of his hand. – Louise Jameson

2. The surest way of being considered eccentric is just to be yourself. So few of us have the nerve. – Marjorie Benton Cooke

1. I was watching Monster’s Ball, which is a fabulous movie. It’s just a little gem: beautifully shot, and shot in a way I never would have done. It made me feel very old, really, because it wasn’t eccentric for its own sake, it was just very original. – Adrian Lyne

Ideas for the top 62 eccentric quotes come from the following sources.^[1]Wise Old Sayings – Eccentric Sayings and Quotes^[2]Notable Quotes – ECCENTRICITY QUOTES^[3]AZ Quotes – Eccentric Quote