Here's one I live by:

"Avoid the crowd. Do your own thinking independently.
Be the chess player, not the chess piece."
-Ralph Charell

Also a pop for Napster's comment.

Me too, although I certainly do not wish to give the3 impression that I am a follower ...... baaaaa

That so few now dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of our time -- John Stuart Mill.

A crowd may not have an opinion, but we can have the opinion we think the crowd expects us to have. We can confidently maintain an assumption in a manner which is never threatened. There is the fear that the popular view is entrenched so as to make the presentation of an alternative pointless. If you want a good opinion it has to be presented in way that makes it more attractive than conventional thinking or it will be forgotten. An original idea has to be expressed in a manner that does the explaining on it's own. Like Archimedes getting into the bath.Eureka! (well...you had to be there. )

Goes to show that Albert knew a lot of sheeple.

I don't claim individual distinction, but I am often told it is mine, as a positive value. I can live with that.

The difference I have seen between the right-left and the non-aligned is that the right-left talk so much about independent thought yet never question their own beliefs. It is not enough to take a stand different from the mainstream, one has to test and question what you accept as true. Do the ideas stand up to reality, and if they don't, can you change your stance?

Test your most dearest "truth" - wish to have it changed by the facts, THAT is independent thought.

Agree with you 100% on that one, kmcolo.

~ The thing is to find the Truth which is True for me, the Idea for which I can live and die - Søren Kierkegaard