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Who really said it

In a world of individuals, comparison is a senseless activity

Attributed to Wayne Dyer 1940–2015 · American self-help author and motivational speaker
Attributed In copyright

Wikiquote’s sourced section ↗ files this line under its subsection for Pulling Your Own Strings: Dynamic Techniques for Dealing with Other People and Living Your Life as You Choose (1978), citing the book and year but giving no page. The edition is real: the Internet Archive’s catalogue record ↗ confirms a 1978 Thomas Y. Crowell Company printing in New York. What we could not do is read it — every scan we found is lending-restricted — so we are not claiming the page-level confirmation that would make this verified. Quote Investigator ↗ has not examined the line. Attributed, anchored to Wikiquote’s citation, and no page number asserted that Wikiquote does not give.

Last verified 11 Oct 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Unconfirmed quote & credit

“In a world of individuals, comparison is a senseless activity” Attributed to Wayne Dyer (1940–2015). Placed by Wikiquote's sourced section in Pulling Your Own Strings: Dynamic Techniques for Dealing with Other People and Living Your Life as You Choose (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1978); no page is given there and the volume is lending-restricted, so treat this as attributed rather than verified. Quotle.info

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by The estate of Wayne W. Dyer and Thomas Y. Crowell Company (the 1978 publisher)). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

Evoking the world of Wayne Dyer — American self-help author and motivational speaker. Theme: "In a world of individuals, comparison is a senseless activity". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "In a world of individuals, comparison is a senseless activity". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The source Wikiquote cites

Attributed to
Wayne W. Dyer (1940–2015), American self-help author
Cited source
Pulling Your Own Strings: Dynamic Techniques for Dealing with Other People and Living Your Life as You Choose
First published
1978 — Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York (confirmed from the Internet Archive catalogue record)
Page
Not given — Wikiquote cites the book without one, and we could not read the volume

In a world of individuals, comparison is a senseless activity. The line as Wikiquote sources it to Pulling Your Own Strings, 1978

We cannot show the surrounding passage, because the volume it is cited to is lending-restricted. Wikiquote gives no page number either, and we have not invented one: the honest statement is that the line is placed in a specific 1978 book by the specialist source this site defers to, and that we did not open it.

Wikiquote: Wayne Dyer, Pulling Your Own Strings (1978)

How we verified this

  • Wikiquote’s Wayne Dyer page ↗ groups its book quotations by title, and this line sits in the Pulling Your Own Strings (1978) subsection — a sourced placement, though the page cites no page number for any quotation on it. That is the anchor, and this record does not go beyond it.
  • The Internet Archive’s catalogue record ↗ confirms the edition behind that citation: Pulling Your Own Strings, T. Y. Crowell Co., New York, 1978. Confirming that the edition exists is not the same as confirming the sentence is in it, and the scan is lending-restricted, which is where we stopped.
  • Wikipedia’s article on Wayne Dyer ↗ establishes the author: an American self-help writer and motivational speaker who took an Ed.D. in guidance and counselling at Wayne State University in 1970, worked as a school guidance counsellor and ran a private therapy practice before Your Erroneous Zones (1976) made him a bestseller. Pulling Your Own Strings was the book that followed.
In copyright

The work this line is cited to was first published in 1978 and is in copyright, as is everything else Dyer published; he died in 2015. Nothing on this page is offered as public domain.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Context

Why it mattered

Pulling Your Own Strings followed Your Erroneous Zones ↗, the 1976 book that made Dyer one of the most-read self-help authors in America. He came to it from practice rather than theory: an Ed.D. in guidance and counselling, years as a high-school guidance counsellor and a private therapy practice. We have not read this book, so we will not summarise its argument — what the sentence itself claims is narrow enough: that where everyone is a separate case, ranking them answers nothing.

The sentence also shows why self-help quotations are so hard to source. They are written to be lifted, they circulate without their paragraph, and the books they come from are recent enough to be in copyright and old enough to be off the open web — which is exactly the gap this page is honest about.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Character Wisdom Happiness

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Wikiquote: Wayne Dyeren.wikiquote.org

The sourced page that places the line in Pulling Your Own Strings (1978).
Wayne Dyeren.wikipedia.org

His life, training and the bestsellers that bracket this book.
Pulling Your Own Strings (1978)archive.org

Catalogue record for the first Thomas Y. Crowell edition.
Quote Investigatorquoteinvestigator.com

The specialist archive; it has not investigated this line.

The author

About Wayne Dyer

Wayne Dyer

1940–2015 · American self-help author and motivational speaker

Wayne Walter Dyer was an American self-help author and motivational speaker. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history and philosophy, a master’s in psychology and an Ed.D. in guidance and counselling at Wayne State University in 1970, then worked as a high-school guidance counsellor and ran a private therapy practice before Your Erroneous Zones (1976) turned him into one of the most widely read self-help writers in America. He published more than twenty books over the next four decades, Pulling Your Own Strings among the earliest.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

The cited source (Chicago)

Wayne W. Dyer, Pulling Your Own Strings: Dynamic Techniques for Dealing with Other People and Living Your Life as You Choose (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1978), as cited in Wikiquote’s sourced section, which gives no page. The volume could not be read; cite as attributed.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘In a world of individuals, comparison is a senseless activity’?” Last verified 11 Oct 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/in-a-world-of-individuals-comparison-is-a-senseless-activity/

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