Quotes on Originality

The majority of business men are not capable of an original thought, simply because they cannot escape the tyranny of reason.

Our originality shows itself most strikingly not in what we wholly originate but in what we do with that which we borrow from others.

Nearly all our originality comes from the stamp that time impresses upon our sensibility.

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.

I did stand-up comedy for 18 years. Ten of those years were spent learning, four years were spent refining, and four years were spent in wild success. I was seeking comic originality, and fame fell on me as a byproduct. The course was more plodding than heroic.

Because of this, originality consists in returning to the origin.

Originality implies a return to the origins, original is returning to the simplicity of the first solutions.

Do not worry about your originality. You could not get rid of it even if you wanted to.

One couldn't carry on life comfortably without a little blindness to the fact that everything has been said better than we can put it ourselves.

Those writers who lie on the watch for novelty can have little hope of greatness; for great things cannot have escaped former observation.

Creativity, which is the expression of our originality, helps us stay mindful that what we bring to the world is completely original and cannot be compared.

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.

Begin with another's to end with your own.

Nothing is new except arrangement.

In proportion as our own mind is enlarged we discover a greater number of men of originality. Commonplace people see no difference between one man and another.

Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.

In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.

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

Insist upon yourself. Be original.

What is the point of being on this Earth if you are going to be like everyone else?

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