#originality

"One does not have to be a philosopher to be a successful artist, but he does have to be an artist to be a successful philosopher. His nature is to view the world in an unpredictable albeit useful light."

"Solitude is the soil in which genius is planted, creativity grows, and legends bloom; faith in oneself is the rain that cultivates a hero to endure the storm, and bare the genesis of a new world, a new forest."

"Get off the treadmill of consumption, replication, and mediocrity. Begin lifting the weights of creativity, originality, and success."

"Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everyone I've ever known."

"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."

"Once conform, once do what other people do because they do it, and a lethargy steals over all the finer nerves and faculties of the soul. She becomes all outer show and inward emptiness; dull, callous, and indifferent."

"Animals do it largely for the REPRODUCTION, but so-called Social Animals (People) do it regularly thinking that it will give them SATISFACTION."

"Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void but out of chaos."

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

"An original writer is not one who imitates nobody, but one whom nobody can imitate."

"In order to share one's true brilliance one initially has to risk looking like a fool: genius is like a wheel that spins so fast, it at first glance appears to be sitting still."

"I refuse to believe that Hendrix had the last possessed hand,that Joplin had the last drunken throat,that Morrison had the last enlightened mind."

"originality and a feeling of one's own dignity are achieved only through work and struggle."

"I'd rather be interesting, original, & unique then follow the pack. Revel in who you truly are & be liberated!"

"Because even among contrarians, I’m a contrarian. But all of this is just words of bronze, third place rhetoric. What do I really mean when I say we want to shock society into awareness? Do we mean we want more originality and individuality? Less TV, more reading, writing, actual thinking? Less sheep, more shepherd pie? Yes, yes, and a little more pie, please. Oh, and some more sweet tea, too"

"All novels are sequels; influence is bliss."

"Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal."

"You can't be a rebel without the scars that come with it. Truth is, some days scars are just as ugly as they are beautiful."

"Create with the heart; build with the mind."

"An original idea. That can't be too hard. The library must be full of them."