Quotes about originality

"Men often applaud an imitation and hiss the real thing."

Aesop on originality
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"ORIGINALITY is unexplored territory. You get there by carrying a canoe -- you can't take a taxi."

Alda, Alan on originality
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"Nearly all our originality comes from the stamp that time impresses upon our sensibility."

Baudelaire, Charles on originality
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"I think one of the reasons I'm popular again is because I'm wearing a tie. You have to be different."

Bennett, Tony on originality   

"The original is unfaithful to the translation."

Borges, Jorge Luis on originality   

"The true is inimitable, the false untransformable."

Bresson, Robert on originality   

"Everything has been said, and we have come too late, now that men have been living and thinking for seven thousand years and more."

Bruyere, Jean De La on originality   

"Set me a task in which I can put something of my very self, and it is a task no longer. It is joy and art."

Carman, Bliss on originality   

"Let us not forget that the greatest composers were also the greatest thieves. They stole from everyone and everywhere."

Casals, Pablo on originality   

"It's been very important throughout my career that I've met all the guys I've copied, because at each stage they've said, Don't play like me, play like you."

Clapton, Eric on originality   

"When a work appears to be ahead of its time, it is only the time that is behind the work."

Cocteau, Jean on originality
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"The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot."

Dali, Salvador on originality
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"An original writer is not one who imitates nobody, but one whom nobody can imitate."

De Chateaubriand on originality
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"All cases are unique and very similar to others."

Eliot, T. S. on originality
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"The most original of authors are not so because they advance what is new, but more because they know how to say something, as if it had never been said before."

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von on originality   

"Begin with another's to end with your own."

Gracian, Baltasar on originality   

"All profoundly original art looks ugly at first."

Greenberg, Clement on originality
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"It is a matter of perfect indifference where a thing originated; the only question is: Is it true in and for itself?"

Hegel, Georg on originality   

"Perhaps our originality manifests itself most strikingly in what we do with that which we did not originate. To discover something wholly new can be a matter of chance, of idle tinkering, or even of the chronic dissatisfaction of the untalented."

Hoffer, Eric on originality   

"A thought is often original, though you have uttered it a hundred times."

Holmes, Oliver Wendell on originality   

"People would rather be wrong than be different."

Jacobsen, Henry on originality   

"Your manuscript is both good and original; but the parts that are good are not original, and the parts that are original are not good."

Johnson, Samuel on originality
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"I found you essay to be good and original. However, the part that was original was not good and the part that was good was not original."

Johnson, Samuel on originality
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"A man is original when he speaks the truth that has always been known to all good men."

Kavanagh, Patrick on originality   

"The more original a discovery, the more obvious it seems afterwards."

Koestler, Arthur on originality   

"Original thought is like original sin: both happened before you were born to people you could not have possibly met."

Lebowitz, Fran on originality   

"It's easier to be original and foolish than original and wise."

Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm Von on originality   

"We are obliged to regard many of our original minds as crazy at least until we have become as clever as they are."

Lichtenberg, Georg C. on originality
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"No one can be profoundly original who does not avoid eccentricity."

Maurois, Andre on originality   

"But it is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation."

Melville, Herman on originality
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"A society made up of individuals who were all capable of original thought would probably be unendurable."

Mencken, H. L. on originality   

"All good things which exist are the fruits of originality."

Mill, John Stuart on originality   

"Originality is the one thing unoriginal minds cannot feel the use of."

Mill, John Stuart on originality
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"Make a technical contribution; innovate, don't emulate."

Packer, David on originality   

"The more intelligent one is, the more men of originality one finds. Ordinary people find no difference between men."

Pascal, Blaise on originality
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"Originality is the fine art of remembering what you hear but forgetting where you heard it."

Peter, Laurence J. on originality   

"Originality consists in trying to be like everybody else --and failing."

Radiguet, Raymond on originality   

"I invent nothing, I rediscover."

Rodin, Auguste on originality   

"When there is an original sound in the world, it makes a hundred echoes."

Shedd, John A. on originality   

"The greatness of art is not to find what is common but what is unique."

Singer, Isaac Bashevis on originality