Originality And Imitation Quotes & Sayings

People of different dispositions make the world go round. That's why it's insanity to try to be someone else. — Ufuoma Apoki

A poor original is better than a good imitation. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

I think the writer is initially set going by literature more than by life. When there are many writers all employing the same idiom, all looking out on more or less the same social scene, the individual writer will have to be more than ever careful that he isn't just doing badly what has already been done to completion. The presence alone of Faulkner in our midst makes a great difference in what the writer can and cannot permit himself to do. Nobody wants his mule and wagon stalled on the same track the Dixie Limited is roaring down. — Flannery O'Connor

As I mentioned briefly on the phone, the best thing about the Air Chrysalis is that it's not an imitation of anyone. It has absolutely none of the usual new writer's sense of 'I want to be another so-and-so'. the syle, for sure, is rough,and the writing is clumsy. She even gets the title wrong: she's confusing 'chrysalis' and 'cocoon'. You could pick it apart completely if you wanted to. But the story itself has real power: it draws you in. the overall plots is a fantasy, but the descriptive details is incredibly real.The balance between the two is excellent. I don't know if words like 'originality' or Inevitability' fit here, and I suppose I might agree if someone insisted it's not at that level, but finally, after you work your way through the thing, with all its faults, it leaves a real impression- it gets to you in some strange, inexplicable way that may be a little disturbing. — Haruki Murakami

Imitation, if noble and general, insures the best hope of originality. — Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

Ministers often preach about the Gospel instead of preaching the Gospel. They often preach about sinners instead of preaching to them. — Charles Grandison Finney

I have pulled threads from magic tapestries already woven and used them to weave my own cloth. — Jane Yolen

Running fills a need so we make fewer demands on others. Running reveals the roots of negative thinking, so the weeds can be pulled. Running reconnects the soul to the source, inspiring hope and creativity. — Kristin Armstrong

Pouring arms into the spreading cauldron of war risks exacerbating the crisis in Iraq. A fully inclusive international diplomatic process should be attempted and is urgently needed now, before the fires of war and militancy spread further in the region. — David Cortright

Any local music scene at any point in time can be referred to as derivative of more well-known acts. The line separating influence from imitation is a blurry one. Very few artists are completely original; even great artists build upon what has occurred before, and add their personality and talent to create their own original expression. — Stephen Tow

When I came up, it was all about originality and collective research. There is an awful lot of imitation going on now. — Steve Lacy

Imitations only better the original. — Sammy Davis Jr.

I am very proud of the fact that I led the arts contingent on the civil rights march in the summer of '63. In many ways, I think it was the high-water mark of the civil rights movement. — Charlton Heston

Basketball is like Religion. Many attend but few understand. — Scott Skiles

Be yourself. An original is worth more than a copy. — Suzy Kassem

The bad teacher imposes his ideas and his methods on his pupils, and such originality as they may have is lost in the second-rate art of imitation. — Stephen Neill

Another great mistake is this; another understandable error is this: living to live the footprints of others when you have your own foot! Live your footprints! You were born unique! If possible, put the shoes of others, (they must fit you however) but don't walk as they walked and as much as possible, don't leave the same footprints they left except you were born to be like them or you can change the face of their footprints into a unique artifact! — Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

In case there is any question in your mind," he said, cupping her face with his hands. "What I want, what I most desire, the loveliest sight on this dark earth, is you. — Eloisa James

Originality is nothing by judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another. — Voltaire

His students were hardly in a position to tell him when he was getting windy, and he had recently noticed, as most professors did after a while, that his lectures mysteriously seemed to be getting longer with time. — Aaron Elkins

That's the thing with women's movies - there's so much about kind of catfighting. And my experience is women aren't - look, we all get in fights with people, but it's not that face-to-face aggression. — Paul Feig

Imitation limits imaginations — Bernard Kelvin Clive

It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation. — Herman Melville

It is altogether an extraordinary growing, swarming, glittering, pushing, chattering, good-natured, cosmopolitan place, and perhaps in some ways the best imitation of Paris that can be found (with a great originality of its own). — Henry James

I knew you could never forgive me," he said, "so I ran away. I thought I had lost you for good. But then I found this second chance, and I came here to redeem myself. This time with you has shown me that my love for you is bigger than my fear. My love for you is bigger than anything I know."
A tear rolled down his cheek. He closed his eyes. He had so much more to say and so little time for it to matter. — Lauren Kate

What surprised him most, however, was the logic of his wings. They seemed so natural on that completely human organism that he couldn't understand why other men didn't have them too. — Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Throw away the servility of imitation, and rise to the manliness of originality. — Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Greatness without models? Inconceivable. One could not be the thing itself - Reality. One must be satisfied with symbols. Make it the object of imitation to reach and release the high qualities. Make peace therefore with intermediacy and representations. Otherwise the individual must be the failure he now sees and knows himself to be. — Saul Bellow

Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. So said Voltaire, the realist. — Haruki Murakami

Nothing is original. 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. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don't bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: "It's not where you take things from - it's where you take them to."
[MovieMaker Magazine #53 - Winter, January 22, 2004 ] — Jim Jarmusch

It is always better to be an original than an imitation. — Theodore Roosevelt

Just give me more, better memories to replace the bad ones. I'll be back to normal before we know it. — A.R. Von

An original writer is not one who imitates nobody, but one whom nobody can imitate. — Francois-Rene De Chateaubriand

Our educational results lag behind other states, and other nations, but worse still, behind the potential of the kids and the devoted teachers in our classrooms. — Mitch Daniels

No writer can be fully convicted of imitation except there is a concurrence of more resemblance than can be imagined to have happened by chance; as where the same ideas are conjoined without any natural series or necessary coherence, or where not only the thought but the words are copied. — Samuel Johnson

Human beings are definitely changing the planet, but how much impact they are having on climate, I don't know and I don't care. — Felix Dennis

Remorse, the fatal egg that pleasure laid. — William Cowper

A good imitation is the most perfect originality — Voltaire