Quotes About Originality

La humanidad se toma a sí misma demasiado en serio. Es el pecado original del mundo. Si el hombre de las cavernas hubiera sabido reír, la historia habría sido diferente.

It is tragic how few people ever 'possess their souls' before they die. 'Nothing is more rare in any man,' says Emerson, 'than an act of his own.' It is quite true. Most people are other people.

high-powered mutant of some kind who was never even considered for mass production. He was too weird to live and too rare to die.… Hunter

A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn.

When a man ain't got no ideas of his own, he'd ought to be kind o' careful who he borrows 'em from.

When a man ain't got no ideas of his own, said Scipio, he'd ought to be kind o' careful who he borrows 'em from.

Anything new, anything worth doing, can't be recognized.

Good artists copy; great artists steal.

The people who make art their business are mostly imposters.

Matisse makes a drawing, then he makes a copy of it. He copies it five times, ten times, always clarifying the line. He's convinced that the last, the most stripped down, is the best, the purest, the definitive one; and in fact, most of the time, it was the first. In drawing, nothing is better than the first attempt.

Art is theft.

To copy others is necessary, but to copy oneself is pathetic.

The bad artists imitate, the great artists steal.

I do not search; I find.

the true stature of a great work may not at first be recognized by those of a more conventional cast of mind.

But what original commentary can you supply, from the uniqueness of your particular life? What holy text have you absorbed and made your own? In what ways have these timeless truths renovated your nature? Are you content to be a hollow victrola, mechanically repeating the words of other men?

As can often be observed, the true stature of a great work may not at first be recognized by those of a more conventional cast of mind.

Don't waste energy living a life someone else designed for you. Life is one per customer. Let them do theirs. You do yours.

She saw the world through a dazzling prism of authentic imagination.

By now accustomed to Billie's personal flamboyancies, I

I think of a sun like Beethoven, a wind like Debussy, and birdcalls like Stravinsky. But the tempo is all mine.

Vic didn't mind at all being considered odd. In fact, he was proud of it in a country in which most people aimed at being exactly like everybody else.

You and I have such abilities, so let's not waste a second worrying because we are not like other people. You are something new in this world. Never before, since the beginning of time, has there ever been anybody exactly like you; and never again throughout al the ages to come will ever be anybody exactly like you again.

Let's not imitate others. Let's find ourselves and be ourselves.