author title marches to the beat of a different drummer?

Answer 1

Henry David Thoreau, Walden, Chapter 18 (I think), "Conclusion"

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away."

As far as I know this was the original of this quotation, but it has been used many, many times since. For example, The Beat of a Different Drum: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman (1994) is a book by Jagdish Mehra.

Many people quote this phrase, often without knowing where it came from, to speak of creative individualists on nonconformists who make their own way in the world, without fitting in with everyone else.