Originality Quotes - Page 22

• Do not shun this maxim because it is common-place. On the contrary, take the closest heed of what observant men, who would probably like to show originality, are yet constrained to repeat. Therein lies the marrow of the wisdom of the world.

  Arthur Helps

  Lying, Men, World

  Sir Arthur Helps (1857). “Companions of My Solitude”, p.58

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• While an original is always hard to find, he is easy to recognize.

  John Landis Mason

  Character, Easy, Originals

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• Our schools offer no conception of the scientific process of discovery. They do not encourage creative thought, in fact, they stifle it through too much rigidity in teaching. If we set out to give as little help as possible to originality in science, we could hardly devise a better plan than our education system. Youngsters ought to be told what is unknown about ourselves and our universe as well as what is known.

  William Lipscomb

  Teaching, School, Ignorance

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• It is the fate of every great achievement to be pounced upon by pedants and imitators who drain it of life and turn it into an orthodoxy which stifles all stirrings of originality.

  Eric Hoffer

  Fate, Achievement, Orthodoxy

  Eric Hoffer (1982). “Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• Of course quality is important but is it not the quality of an individual's originality that is most important?

  Robert Owen

  Important, Quality, Individual

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• I admire anyone who can come up with something original. But not originality alone, because there can be originality in stupidity, with no musical description of any emotion or any beauty the man has seen, or any kind of life he has lived.

  Charles Mingus

  Men, Stupidity, Musical

  "What Is A Jazz Composer?". Charles Mingus' liner notes for "Let My Children Hear Music", album composed by Charles Mingus, January/February 1972.

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• With its claims to profundity, boldness and originality, thinking still limits itself provisionally to the exclusively rational and scientific. ... As soon as it lays hold of the feelings, it becomes spirit.

  Robert Musil

  Thinking, Feelings, Limits

  Robert Musil, Burton Pike, David S. Luft (1995). “Precision and Soul: Essays and Addresses”, p.43, University of Chicago Press

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• Without moving beyond a mere copy, there is no artistry, no originality or artistic advancement; only mechanics.

  Jennifer Young

  Moving, Copying, Advancement

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• The kernel, the soul — let us go further and say the substance, the bulk, the actual and valuable material of all human utterances — is plagiarism. For substantially all ideas are second-hand, consciously and unconsciously drawn from a million outside sources, and daily used by the garnerer with a pride and satisfaction born of the superstition that he originated them; whereas there is not a rag of originality about them anywhere except the little discoloration they get from his mental and moral calibre and his temperament, and which is revealed in characteristics of phrasing.

  Mark Twain

  Pride, Hands, Ideas

  Mark Twain (2014). “Mark Twain’s Letters & Speeches (Annotated Edition)”, p.831, Jazzybee Verlag

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• All my originality consists?in giving life in human fashion to beings which are impossible according to the laws of possibility.

  Odilon Redon

  Fashion, Law, Giving

  Quoted in Edward Lucie-Smith Symbolist Art (1972).

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• All effort at originality must end either in the quaint or the monstrous. For no man knows himself as an original; he can only believe it on the report of others.

  Washington Allston

  Believe, Men, Effort

  Washington Allston, Richard Henry Dana (1850). “Lectures on Art, and Poems”, p.174, Scholarly Pub Office Univ of

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• The authentic rebel knows that the silencing of all his adversaries is the last thing on earth he wishes: their extermination would deprive him and whoever else remains alive from the uniqueness, the originality, and the capacity for insight that these enemies being human also have and could share with him. If we wish the death of our enemies, we cannot talk about the community of man. In the losing of the chance for dialogue with our enemies, we are the poorer.

  Rollo May

  Men, Community, Enemy

  Rollo May (1998). “Power and Innocence: A Search for the Sources of Violence”, p.237, W. W. Norton & Company

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• What a newspaper needs in its news, in its headlines, and on its editorial page is terseness, humor, descriptive power, satire, originality, good literary style, clever condensation and accuracy, accuracy, accuracy.

  Joseph Pulitzer

  Clever, Style, Needs

  c.1910 Quoted in Alleyne Ireland An Adventure with a Genius, ch.4.

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• The only way to grab the attention of the audience is originality. We feed ourselves with franchises that's the opposite of what makes our culture multidimensional and interesting.

  Ron Perlman

  Opposites, Interesting, Culture

  Source: variety.com

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• Following Korzybski, I put things in probabilities, not absolutes... My only originality lies in applying this zetetic attitude outside the hardest of the hard sciences, physics, to softer sciences and then to non-sciences like politics, ideology, jury verdicts and, of course, conspiracy theory.

  Robert Anton Wilson

  Attitude, Lying, Physics

  High Times Interview, 2003.

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• Originality is another criterion of aesthetic value. We may formulate an originality principle, according to which highly valuable works of art provide hitherto unavailable insights.... Notice that, although originality is a necessary condition of high aesthetic value, it is far from a sufficient condition. Many original works have little or no aesthetic value. An artwork may present a novel but uninteresting perspective, or one that is original but wrong.

  James Young

  Art, Perspective, Principles

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• Our novice runs the risk of failure without additional traits: a strong inclination toward originality, a taste for research, and a desire to experience the incomparable gratification associated with the act of discovery itself.

  Santiago Ramon y Cajal

  Running, Strong, Science

  Santiago Ramón y Cajal (2004). “Advice for a Young Investigator”, p.48, MIT Press

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• Frederick Turner comes across in his poems as a man of impressively broad experience, intellectual brilliance, and originality. … He’s at his best when he unleashes his extraordinary powers of observation.

  Richard Tillinghast

  Men, Intellectual, Broads

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• The qualities in music which I considered most important - and still do - were beauty, simplicity, originality, discrimination, and sincerity.

  Paul Desmond

  Music, Simplicity, Important

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• What is it we value? Innovation. Originality. Novelty. But most importantly...timeliness. I fear you may be too late, my confused, unfortunate, friend.

  Brandon Sanderson

  Confused, Innovation, Too Late

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• To this day, no one has come up with a set of rules for originality. There aren't any.

  Les Paul

  Inspirational, Individual Differences, Being Different

  FaceBook post by Les Paul from Nov 30, 2015

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• The mind is sharper and keener in seclusion and uninterrupted solitude. Originality thrives in seclusion free of outside influences beating upon us to cripple the creative mind. Be alone-that is the secret of invention: be alone, that is when ideas are born.

  Nikola Tesla

  Loneliness, Being Alone, Creativity

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• Originality consists of returning to the origin. Thus, originality means returning, through one's resources, to the simplicity of the early solutions.

  Antonio Gaudi

  Mean, Simplicity, Resources

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• Universities are renowned for their tolerance of unusual characters, especially if they show originality and dedication to their research. I have often made the comment that not only are universities a 'cathedral' for worship of knowledge, they are also 'sheltered workshops' for the socially challenged.

  Tony Attwood

  Character, Dedication, Tolerance

  Tony Attwood (2006). “The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome”, p.301, Jessica Kingsley Publishers

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• Cerebration is the enemy of originality in art.

  Martin Ritt

  Art, Artist, Enemy

  Martin Ritt, Gabriel Miller (2003). “Martin Ritt: Interviews”, p.205, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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