50 Alt Quotes About Living Outside the Norm

Check out these Alt quotes to see that living an Alternative Lifestyle is not all bad.

Traditionally living an alternative lifestyle simply means not abiding or living according to the social “norms” of your culture.

Many people think of negative or unflattering images when they hear the phrase “alternative lifestyles,” but that is not always the case.

In some cases, alternative lifestyles start with someone pushing back against what they consider the “norm.”

While some people may choose negative actions to stand out from the “pack,” some people choose to do something different than the majority because they have different beliefs.

With technology providing more options, we have seen alternative forms of media for people that don’t like the mainstream media, alternative working situations with remote work, and more options.

Take a few moments to read these Alt quotes to learn more about living an alternative lifestyle.

Unique Alt Quotes from Different Lifestyles

If you’re struggling with living like everyone else, these quotes may inspire you to find your own way.

1. “We pass through this world but once.” — Stephen Jay Gould

2. “If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself.” — Rick Riordan

3. “Normal is not something to aspire to; it’s something to get away from.” — Jodie Foster

4. “Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.” — Margaret Mead

5. “In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different.” — Coco Chanel

6. “Life can only be understood backward; but it must be lived forwards.” — Søren Kierkegaard

7. “People have a problem with me being different, but that propels me forward in life.” — Mary-Louise Parker

8. “Three things in life – your health, your mission, and the people you love. That’s it.” — Naval Ravikant

9. “The most incredible beauty and the most satisfying way of life come from affirming your own uniqueness.” — Jane Fonda

10. “Accept yourself, love yourself, and keep moving forward. If you want to fly, you have to give up what weighs you down.” — Roy T. Bennett

Alt Quotes for Homeschooling

Homeschooling is an alt lifestyle growing in popularity.

11. “I homeschool my children not to prepare them for exams, but to prepare them for life.” — Tamara L Chilver

12. “Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.” — Jim Rohn

13. “Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.” — Albert Einstein

14. “The best education does not happen at a desk, but rather engaged in everyday living – hands-on exploring , in active relationship with life.” — Vince Gowmon

15. “It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.” — Albert Einstein

16. “There’s nothing that stamps out the true love of learning more quickly than standardized testing and benchmarking.” — Grace Koelma

17. “My schooling not only failed to teach me what it professed to be teaching but prevented me from being educated to an extent which infuriates me when I think of all I might have learned at home by myself.” — George Bernard Shaw

18. “We must be careful not to discourage our twelve-year-olds by making them waste the best years of their lives preparing for examinations.” — Freeman Dyson

19. “Childhood is not a race to see how quickly a child can read, write, and count. Childhood is a small window of time to learn and develop at the pace which is right for each individual child.” — Magda Gerber

20. “What is most important and valuable about the home as a base for children’s growth into the world is not that it is a better school than the schools, but that it isn’t a school at all.” — John Holt

Alt Quotes for Those Who Choose a Rural Homestead Life

If your alt life has taken you to wide open spaces and homesteading, these quotes are for you.

21. “The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature.” — Alfred Austin

22. “Growing your own food is like printing your own money!” — Ron Finley

23. “When the world wearies, and society fails to satisfy, there is always the garden.” — Minnie Aumonier

24. “Everyone across America had the same idea at the same time. Chickens became the toilet paper of the spring.” — Melissa Gilbert

25. “Beauty surrounds us, but usually we need to be walking in a garden to know it.” — Rumi

26. “Here in the country, on a little farm in southern Georgia, I am building a quiet life of resistance. I am a radical peasant, and every day I take out my little hammer, and I keep building.” — Janisse Ray

27. “God Almighty first planted a garden. And indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures.” — Francis Bacon

28. “The fact that we heated most of the old farmhouse with nothing but a woodstove was a source of great pride for my father and endless inspiration for witticisms like, ‘Chop your own wood; it’ll warm you twice!’” — Mike Rowe

29. “A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all, it teaches entire trust.” — Gertrude Jekyll

30. “Our deep respect for the land and its harvest is the legacy of generations of farmers who put food on our tables, preserved our landscape, and inspired us with a powerful work ethic.” — James H. Douglas

Alt Quotes from the Roaring Twenties

Some think the alt lifestyle in the U.S. started with flappers in the roaring twenties.

31. “I don’t know if I realized as soon as I began seeing them that they represented the wave of the future.” — Colleen Moore

32. “Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.” — Langston Hughes

33. “It was an age of miracles, it was an age of art, it was an age of excess, and it was an age of satire.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald

34. “Life never gives us what we want at the moment that we consider appropriate. Adventures do occur, but not punctually.” — E.M. Forster

35. “’ ‘If she’s a flapper,’ mused the sergeant, wiping Passionate Rouge lipstick off his blameless mouth, ‘then I’m all for ’em, and I don’t care what Mum says.’” ― Kerry Greenwood

36. “I have no patience with the modern neurotic girl who jazzes from morning to night, smokes like a chimney, and uses language which would make a billingsgate fishwoman blush!” — Agatha Christie

37. “It’s never too late to be whoever you want to be. I hope you live a life you’re proud of, and if you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start over.” — Scott Fitzgerald

38. “They were smart and sophisticated, with an air of independence about them, and so casual about their looks and clothes and manners as to be almost slapdash.” — Colleen Moore

39. “Take care of your inner, spiritual beauty. That will reflect in your face.” — Dolores del Rio

40. “The Flapper awoke from her lethargy… put on her choicest pair of earrings and a great deal of audacity and rouge and went into battle… She was conscious that the things she did were the things she had always wanted to do.” — Zelda Fitzgerald

Alt Quotes from Digital Nomads

If you’re enjoying an alt life as a digital nomad, these quotes are for you.

41. “Live your life by a compass, not a clock.” — Stephen Covey

42. “Adventure is worthwhile.” — Aesop

43. “People don’t take trips; trips take people.” — John Steinbeck

44. “Live life with no excuses, travel with no regret.” — Oscar Wilde

45. “Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.” — Dalai Lama

46. “Jobs fill your pocket, but adventures fill your soul.” — Jamie Lyn Beatty

47. “Blessed are the curious, for they shall have adventures.” — Lovelle Drachman

48. “We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.” — Hilaire Belloc

49. “A ship in a harbor is safe, but it not what ships are built for.” — John A. Shedd

50. “A person susceptible to “wanderlust” is not so much addicted to movement as committed to transformation.” — Pico Iyer

What Are Other Forms of Alternative Life Choices?

In modern culture, there are many forms of alternative life choices, such as homeschooling children instead of sending them to traditional schools.

Other alternative lifestyle choices include body modification, such as piercings or tattoos, veganism, nudism, and even alternative forms of worship.

Please share these Alt quotes with your friends and post any quotes about what you do in your life that is considered outside the “norm.”