We are half ruined by conformity; but we should be wholly ruined without it.

Warner frames conformity as a double-edged social necessity. On one side, the pressure to fit in can “half ruin” us by dulling individuality, discouraging dissent, and rewarding safe imitation over originality. On the other, he argues that some shared conventions—manners, laws, common expectations—are indispensable for social life; without them we would be “wholly ruined” by chaos, mistrust, and the inability to cooperate. The epigram’s force lies in its balance: it neither romanticizes nonconformity nor excuses herd thinking, but suggests that a livable society requires a constant negotiation between personal integrity and communal norms.