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. . . ORIGINALITY see "DISCOVERY" for related links see "SUCCESS" for related links Nature made him and then broke the mold. --Ludovico Ariosto (1474—1533) Italian poet. _Orlando Furioso_ [1532], canto X, st. 84 The truth is that the propensity of man to imitate what is before him is one of the strongest parts of his nature. --Walter Bagehot (1826—1877) British economist and essayist. _Physics and Politics_ [1872] About the most originality that any writer can hope to achieve honestly is to steal with good judgment. --Josh Billings [Henry Wheeler Shaw] (1818—1885) American humorist. The man is most original who can adapt from the greatest number of sources. --Thomas Carlyle (1795—1881) Scottish historian and political philosopher. In Glen Evans _The Complete Guide to Writing Non-fiction_ [1983]. The original writer is not he who refrains from imitating others, but he who can be imitated by none. --François-René de Chateaubriand (1768—1848) French writer and diplomat. _Le Génie du Christianisme_ [1802] Damn those who have said what we wanted to say! --Aelius Donatus (late 4th cent. A.D.) Roman grammarian and teacher of rhetoric. We prefer to believe that the absence of inverted commas guarantees the originality of a thought, whereas it may be merely that the utterer has forgotten its source. --Clifton Fadiman (1904—1999) American critic and author. _Any Number Can Play_ Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again. --Andre Gide (1869—1951) French novelist and critic who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1947. When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other. --Eric Hoffer (1902—1983) American longshoreman, philosopher, and author who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1982. _Passionate State of Mind_ [1955] It is hard to utter common notions in an individual way. --Horace [Quintus Horatius Flaccus] (65—8 BC) Roman poet. "Ars Poetica," l.128 What is originality? Undetected plagiarism. --William Ralph Inge (1860—1954) English writer and Dean of St. Paul's [1911—1934]. Originality is the art of concealing your source. --Franklin P. Jones Unfortunately, the identity of Franklin P. Jones is not clear. Some quotation sites on the Internet refer to him as an American businessman who lived from 1887—1929, while others refer to him as an American humorist who lived from 1853—1935. In "Quote Magazine." It is certain that I cannot always distinquish my own thoughts from those I read, because what I read becomes the very substance and text of my mind. --Helen Keller (1880—1968) American author and educator who was blind and deaf. (when accused of plagerism) 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. --C.S. [Clive Staples] Lewis (1898—1963) British scholar and novelist. _Mere Christianity_ [1952] Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new after all. --Abraham Lincoln (1809—1865) American Republican statesman, President [1861—1865]. Originality is the fine art of remembering what you hear but forgetting where you heard it. --Laurence J. Peter (1919—1990) Canadian teacher and author. In "The New Webster's Dictionary of Quotations and Famous Phrases," by Donald Bolander [1987]. Anyone who tells you he has discovered something new is a fool, or a liar or both. --Mack Sennett (1880—1960) Canadian-born innovator of slapstick comedy in film. In James Agee, _Agee on Film_ vol 1 [1967]. A man of great common sense and good taste — meaning thereby a man without originality or moral courage. --George Bernard Shaw (1856—1950) Irish comic dramatist, literary critic, Socialist propagandist, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925 [he didn't accept it.] Originality is not seen in single words or even sentences. Originality is the sum total of a man's thinking or his writing. --Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904—1991) Polish-American novelist who won the 1978 Nobel Prize for Literature. "New York Times Magazine" [12 March 1978] In fact, nothing is said that has not been said before. --Terence [Publius Terentius Afer] (c. 190—159 BC) Roman comic dramatist. _Eunuchus_, line 41 (Prologue) Adam was the only man who, when he said a good thing, knew that nobody had said it before him. --Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910) American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot. Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed from one another. The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbors, kindle it at home, communicate it to others and it becomes the property of us all. --Voltaire (François Marie Arouet) (1694—1778) French writer and philosopher. ----- archetype (noun) An original model or pattern from which others are made or copied; prototype. Synonyms: prototype, model, pattern, exemplar, original Similar: mold, paragon, paradigm, precursor, forerunner, ancestor, predecessor Related: image, original, lead Derived: archetypal, adj.; archetypally, adv.; archetypic, adj. sui generis [soo-eye-JEN-ur-us]; adjective: Being the only example of its kind; constituting a class of its own; unique.  . . George Orwell [Eric Blair] (1903-1950) English novelist. see: "AUTHORS" see "PEOPLE" for other related links - What puzzles me is the marked preference of the public for _1984_ [over _Animal Farm_]. For it seems to me (apart from its magnificent, and fortunately detachable, Appendix on "Newspeak") to be merely a flawed, interesting book; but the _Farm_ is a work of genius which may well outlive the particular and (let us hope) temporary conditions that provoked it. To begin with, it is very much the shorter of the two. This in itself would not, of course, show it to be the better. I am the last person to think so. Callimachus, to be sure, thought a great book a great evil, but then I think Callimachus a great prig. My appetite is hearty and when I sit down to read I like a square meal. But in this instance the shorter book seems to do all that the longer one does; and more. The longer book does not justify its greater length. There is dead wood in it. . . . The great sentence "All animals are equal but some are more equal than others" bites deeper than the whole of _1984_. . . . Paradoxically, when Orwell turns all his characters into animals he makes them more fully human. . . Here, despite the animal disguise, we feel we are in a real world. . . . Finally, _Animal Farm_ is formally almost perfect; light, strong, balanced. There is not a sentence that does not contribute to the whole. The myth says all the author wants it to say and (equally important) it doesn't say anything else. Here is an objet d'art as durably satisfying as a Horatian ode or a Chippendale chair. --C.S. [Clive Staples] Lewis (1898—1963) British scholar and novelist. _On Stories and Other Essays on Literature_, "George Orwell" [1955] ;void(0)) OUTCASTS . . see: "SOLITUDE" - Ostracism was one of the ways in which Athenian democracy was expressed, and involved banishing for ten years any prominent citizen who had become unpopular. On a day appointed for the vote, the Agora was enclosed by a fence and all those citizens who wanted to take part were admitted by one of ten entrances. They handed to an official a pot- sherd with the name of a man they wished to see banished written on it. When all the potsherds had been collected, they were counted and, pro- vided there were over six thousand of them, the man whose name appeared most was ostracised. He had to leave the city within ten days; but, after the ten years of his exile were over, he could return without either disgrace or curtailment of his rights as a citizen. --Christopher Hibbert _Cities and Civilizations_ [2003 ed.] Ch. 2 "Athens in the Days of Pericles 480-404 BC" - anathema (noun) [ê-'næ-thê-mê] Formal ecclesiastical expulsion, excommunication; any strong denunciation leading to rejection or ostracism; the person (outcast) or object so reviled and denounced. eschew (verb) [e-'shu] Shun, avoid, shy away from. ;void(0)) OUTDOORS . . see "NATURE" for related links Our poets . . . spent too much of their lives inside rooms and classrooms when they should have been trudging up mountains, slogging through swamps, rowing down rivers. The indoor life is the next best thing to premature burial. --Edward Abbey (1927—1989) American author. _A Voice Crying in the Wilderness_ (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) [1989] chapter 5 "On Witing and Writers, Books and Art" The outdoors is what you have to pass through to get from your apartment to a taxicab. --Fran Lebowitz (1946— ) American humorist. ----- alfresco [al-FRES-koh], adverb: 1. In the open air; outdoors. 2. Taking place or located in the open air; outdoor. . . see: "HUBRIS" see: "SNOBS" Good sense is of all things in the world the most equally distributed, for everybody thinks he is so well supplied with it, that even those most difficult to please in all other matters never desire more of it than they already possess. --René Descartes (1596—1650) French philosopher and mathematician. _Discours de la méthode_ [1637] (Discourse on Method) He who imagines he can do without the world deceives himself much; but he who fancies the world cannot do without him is still more mistaken. --François de La Rochefoucauld (1613—1680) French classical author. Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it. --George Orwell [Eric Blair] (1903—1950) English novelist. - 93% Percentage of managers who consider themselves to be excellent or good bosses, according to a survey of workers by the Hudson Institute. 67% Pecentage of workers who rate their bosses favorably. --in _Las Vegas Business Press_ [2 October 2006] - . . see: "TRIFLES" see: "TAKING THINGS SERIOUSLY" If the only tool you have is a hammer, it is tempting to treat everything as if it were a nail. --Abraham Maslow (1908—1970) American psychologist. _The Psychology of Science_ [1966] ^ From the Washington Post. A man sawed off his hand at a Fairfax County butcher shop last night after a dispute over his order, county police said. Police said the man was taken to a hospital in serious condition after the 7 p.m. incident in a market in the 7000 block of Spring Garden Drive in the Franconia area. Police said that they understood that the man had wanted goat and was given chicken. --_New Yorker_ (magazine) [24 December 2007] ^ ^ Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809—1892) British poet, poet laureate [1850—1892]. Tennyson was entertaining a Russian nobleman on his house on the Isle of Wight. One morning the Russian set off on a shooting expedition, returning later that day with the proud news that he had shot two peasants. Tennyson politely corrected his guest's pronunciation: 'You mean two pheasants,' he said. 'No,' replied the Russian,' 'two peasants. They were insolent, so I shot them.' --_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_ edited by Clifton Fadiman and André Bernard [2000 ed.] ^ . . see "FOOD & DRINK" for related links I will not eat oysters. I want my food dead — not sick, not wounded — dead. --Woody Allen [Allen Stewart Konigsberg] (1935— ) American actor, screenwriter, and director. When Salvadore Dali was offered his first raw oyster, he shuddered and remarked, "I'd as soon eat a piece of Mae West!" Listen to me and I'm sure you'll agree That the bravest man in eternity Was neither a soldier nor champion of law But the first who devoured an oyster, raw. --"Troob", in a Brant Parker/Johnny Hart _Wizard of Id_cartoon end page | NAME CALLING - NASTINESS | NATIONALISM - NATIVE AMERICANS | NATURE | NAVY - NEGLECT | NEIGHBORS/NEIGHBORHOOD - NEW YORK | NEW YORK CITY | NEWS - NEWSPEAK | NICE - NONCONFORMITY | NIXON YEARS | NONSENSE - NOVEMBER | NUCLEAR WAR - NURSERY RHYMES | OBESITY - OBSTACLES | OBSTINACY - OKLAHOMA | OLD - OLD AGE | OLD-FASHIONED - OPERA | OPINION | OPPORTUNITY - ORGANIZATION | ORIGINALITY - OYSTERS | | H | I - J | K - L | M | N - O | P - Q | | Return Home | The Credits | The Cast | Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3 | The End | The Reviews | Photos | |
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