35 Quotes About Stereotypes

Stereotyping is something that we all suffer from doing in our lifetime. It has been demonstrated that there is a science behind this unique human behavior. These quotes about stereotypes offer the perfect encouragement we need to try to avoid unnecessarily categorizing and stereotyping other people.

“A stereotype may be negative or positive, but even positive stereotypes present two problems: They are cliches, and they present a human being as far more simple and uniform than any human being actually is.”

“All stereotypes turn out to be true. This is a horrifying thing about life. All those things you fought against as a youth: you begin to realize they’re stereotypes because they’re true.”

“An expensive ad represents the toil, attention, testing, wit, art, and skill of many people. Far more thought and care go into the composition of any prominent ad in a newspaper or magazine than go into the writing of their features and editorials.”

“Anything may happen when womanhood has ceased to be a protected occupation.”

“As long as she thinks of a man, nobody objects to a woman thinking.”

“Attempting to get at truth means rejecting stereotypes and cliches.”

“Don’t live up to your stereotypes.”

“Fit no stereotypes. Don’t chase the latest management fads. The situation dictates which approach best accomplishes the team’s mission.”

“I didn’t want to let women down. One of the stereotypes I see breaking is the idea of aging and older women not being beautiful.”

“I do not think I ever opened a book in my life which had not something to say upon woman’s inconstancy. Songs and proverbs, all talk of woman’s fickleness. But perhaps you will say, these were all written by men.”

“I think a trillion dollars of student loans and a massive skills gap are precisely what happens to a society that actively promotes one form of education as the best course for the most people.”

“I think it’s time we all agree that gender stereotypes are simply the confabulation of our own mind.”

“My goal is to be myself, and to challenge stereotypes, and to follow the rules, and break them, and make new rules. It’s not about doing something that’s already been done. That would be silly.”

“Once you label me you negate me.”

“Stereotypes are ways of making extremely primitive and simple differentiations. Differentiations of gender, race, class, social status – so ordinary social life is very much built upon a whole repertoire of stereotypes we carry around.”

“Stereotypes exist because there’s always some truth to stereotypes. Not always, but often.”

“Stereotypes happen. I try not to embrace them or avoid them.”

“Stereotypes have their roots in truth.”

“Stereotypes lose their power when the world is found to be more complex than the stereotype would suggest. When we learn that individuals do not fit the group stereotype, then it begins to fall apart.”

“Stereotypes should never influence policy or public opinion.”

“The moment there is imagination there is myth.”

“The problem with labels is that they lead to stereotypes and stereotypes lead to generalizations and generalizations lead to assumptions and assumptions lead back to stereotypes.”

“The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.”

“The whole idea of a stereotype is to simplify. Instead of going through the problem of all this great diversity – that it’s this or maybe that – you have just one large statement; it is this.”

“There are a lot of stereotypes to be broken which I think a lot of us are doing. What I do is, as soon as people try to pin me down to one kind of part, I’ll play a very different kind of role, so it explodes that stereotype.”

“There’s a difference between being yourself and being your stereotype.”

“We can each define ambition and progress for ourselves. The goal is to work toward a world where expectations are not set by the stereotypes that hold us back, but by our personal passion, talents and interests.”

“We must reject not only the stereotypes that others have of us but also those that we have of ourselves.”

“We shouldn’t judge people through the prism of our own stereotypes.”

“We slaughter one another in our words and attitudes. We slaughter one another in the stereotypes and mistrust that linger in our heads, and the words of hate we spew from our lips.”

“When I died my hair red the first time, I felt as if it was what nature intended. I have been accused of being a bit of a spitfire, so in that way, I absolutely live up to the stereotype.”

“When people rely on surface appearances and false racial stereotypes, rather than in-depth knowledge of others at the level of the heart, mind and spirit, their ability to assess and understand people accurately is compromised.”

“When you label somebody and put them in a box, then you put the lid on the box, and you just never look inside again. I think it’s much more interesting for human beings to look at each other’s stories and see each other.”

“Wherever you find a great man, you will find a great mother or a great wife standing behind him — or so they used to say.”

“You ought to stop listening to stereotypes and start forming your own opinions.”

Working against stereotypes is no easy feat. It can take a generation of people to fight hard for change that will break the inevitable influence stereotypes carry in society.