Originality Quotes - Page 2

• Some writers confuse authenticity, which they ought always to aim at, with originality, which they should never bother about.

  W. H. Auden

  Confusion, Confusing, Funny Basketball

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• We are all primary numbers divisible only by ourselves.

  Jean Guitton

  Self, Numbers, Anorexia

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• The world in general doesn't know what to make of originality; it is startled out of its comfortable habits of thought, and its first reaction is one of anger.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Anger, Political, World

  "Ten Novels and Their Authors". Book by W. Somerset Maugham, 1948.

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• The glass I drink from is not large, but at least it is my own.

  Alfred de Musset

  Glasses, Drink, My Own

  'La Coupe et les lévres'

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• More than a rejection or dissolution of the past, avant-garde originality is conceived as a literal origin, a beginning from ground zero, a birth.

  Rosalind E. Krauss

  Zero, Past, Rejection

  Rosalind E. Krauss (1986). “The Originality of the Avant-garde and Other Modernist Myths”, p.157, MIT Press

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• Don't worry about your originality. You couldn't get rid of it even if you wanted to. It will stick with you and show up for better or worse in spite of all you or anyone else can do.

  Robert Henri

  Worry, Sticks, Spite

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• Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new at all.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Workout, Book, New Relationship

  Abraham Lincoln (1999). “The Wit & Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln: A Treasury of Quotations, Anecdotes, and Observations”, Gramercy

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• What moves those of genius, what inspires their work is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough.

  Eugene Delacroix

  Art, Moving, Ideas

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• Originality is independence, not rebellion; it is sincerity, not antagonism.

  George Henry Lewes

  Uprising, Independence, Sincerity

  George Henry Lewes (1891). “The Principles of Success in Literature”

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• The prerequisite of originality is the art of forgetting, at the proper moment, what we know.

  Arthur Koestler

  Art, Creativity, Forget

  Arthur Koestler (1969). “The Act of Creation”

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• So long as men praise you, you can only be sure that you are not yet on your own true path but on someone else's.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Inspirational, Men, Long

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• It is necessary to any originality to have the courage to be an amateur.

  Wallace Stevens

  Funny Basketball

  Wallace Stevens (2011). “Opus Posthumous: Poems, Plays, Prose”, p.250, Vintage

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• A man is original when he speaks the truth that has always been known to all good men.

  Patrick Kavanagh

  Men, Good Man, Speak

  Patrick Kavanagh (1973). “Collected Pruse”

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• The true is inimitable, the false untransformable.

  Robert Bresson

  Robert Bresson (2016). “Notes on the Cinematograph”, p.5, New York Review of Books

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• Most people think an artist tries to be original, but originality is the last thing that develops in the artist.

  Lukas Foss

  Artist, Thinking, People

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• Never change your originality for the sake of others because no one can play your role better than you.

  Lyn

  Play, Sake, Roles

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• A facility for quotation covers the absence of original thought.

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  Political, Original Thought, Absence

  "Gaudy Night". Book by Dorothy L. Sayers, 1936.

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  I stay true to myself and my style, and I am always pushing myself to be aware of that and be original.

  Aaliyah

  Individuality, Style, Pushing

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

  Pablo Casals

  Thieves, Forget, Composer

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• As a rule, I am very careful to be shallow and conventional where depth and originality are wasted.

  Lucy Maud Montgomery

  Depth, Shallow, Adaptability

  Lucy Maud Montgomery, Francis W. P. Bolger, Elizabeth R. Epperly (1992). “My dear Mr. M.: letters to G.B. MacMillan from L.M. Montgomery”, Oxford University Press, 1992

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• Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic.

  Jim Jarmusch

  Inspirational, Music, Dream

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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  Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.

  Erich Fromm

  Letting Go, Spiritual, Courage

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• Originality is a quality that cannot be imitated. The technique of the language, on the other hand, is something that belongs to all who can understand it.

  John French Sloan

  Hands, Quality, Technique

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• Originality exists in every individual because each of us differs from the others. We are all primary numbers divisible only by ourselves.

  Jean Guitton

  Numbers, Funny Basketball, Individual

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• Originality does not consist in saying what no one has ever said before, but in saying exactly what you think yourself.

  James Stephens

  Inspirational, Wisdom, Writing

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