Men often applaud an imitation and hiss the real thing. – Aesop
ORIGINALITY is unexplored territory. You get there by carrying a canoe — you cant take a taxi. – Alan Alda
As the births of living creatures, at first, are ill-shapen: so are all Innovations, which are the births of time. – Francis Bacon
Nearly all our originality comes from the stamp that time impresses upon our sensibility. – Charles Baudelaire
I think one of the reasons Im popular again is because Im wearing a tie. You have to be different. – Tony Bennett
The original is unfaithful to the translation. – Jorge Luis Borges
The true is inimitable, the false untransformable. – Robert Bresson
Everything has been said, and we have come too late, now that men have been living and thinking for seven thousand years and more. – Jean De La Bruyere
Set me a task in which I can put something of my very self, and it is a task no longer. It is joy and art. – Bliss Carman
Let us not forget that the greatest composers were also the greatest thieves. They stole from everyone and everywhere. – Pau (Pablo) Casals
Innovation! One cannot be forever innovating. I want to create classics. – Coco Chanel
Pure innovation is more gross than error. – George Chapman
Its been very important throughout my career that Ive met all the guys Ive copied, because at each stage theyve said, Dont play like me, play like you. – Eric Clapton
When a work appears to be ahead of its time, it is only the time that is behind the work. – Jean Cocteau
Anyone who has invented a better mousetrap, or the contemporary equivalent, can expect to be harassed by strangers demanding that you read their unpublished manuscripts or undergo the humiliation of public speaking, usually on remote Midwestern campuses. – Barbara Ehrenreich
All cases are unique and very similar to others. – TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot
Innovators are inevitably controversial. – Eva Le Gallienne
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. – Johann von Goethe
Begin with anothers to end with your own. – Baltasar Gracian
All profoundly original art looks ugly at first. – Clement Greenberg
