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ORIGINALITY --- ORWELL (GEORGE) --- OUTCASTS OUTDOORS --- OVER-ESTIMATING OURSELVES OVERREACTION --- OYSTERS

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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.
--Fran็ois-Ren้ de Chateaubriand (1768—1848)
French writer and diplomat.
_Le G้nie du Christianisme_, pt. 2, bk. I, ch. 3 [1802]

Damn those who have said what we wanted to say!
--Aelius Donatus (late 4th cent. A.D.)
Roman grammarian and teacher of rhetoric.

By necessity, by proclivity and by
delight, we all quote. In fact it is as
difficult to appropriate the thoughts
of others as it is to invent.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.
_Letters and Social Aims_ "Quotation and Originality" [1876]

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_ [1957]

Should we all confess our sins to one another
we would all laugh at one another for our lack
of originality.
--Kahlil Gibran (1883—1931)
Lebanese poet.
_Sand and Foam_ [1926]

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.

All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what
is necessary is only to try to think of them again.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749—1832)
German poet, novelist, and playwright.
_Proverbs in Prose_ [1819]

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].
Quoted in Connie Robertson
_The Wordsworth Dictionary of Quotations_, p. 181 [1998].

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."

[When accused of plagerism:]
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.

Original thought is like original sin: both happened
before you were born to people you could not have
possibly met.
--Fran Lebowitz (b. 1946)
American humorist.
_Social Studies_ [1981] "People"

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].

Console yourself, dear man and brother, whatever you may
be sure of, be sure at least of this, that you are dreadfully
like other people. Human nature has a much greater genius
for sameness than for originality, or the world would be at
a sad pass shortly.
--James Russell Lowell (1819—1891)
American poet, critic, essayist, and diplomat.
"On a Certain Condescension in Foreigners" in the
essay collection _My Study Windows_ [1871].

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].

I always have a quotation for everything — it saves original thinking.
--Dorothy L. Sayers (1893—1957)
English writer of detective fiction.
_Have His Carcase_, ch. 4 [1932]

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)

What a good thing Adam had — when he said a
good thing he knew nobody had said it before.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
_Notebook_ [2 July 1867]

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 (Fran็ois Marie Arouet) (1694—1778)
French writer and philosopher.

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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.



ORWELL (GEORGE)

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George Orwell [Eric Blair] (1903-1950)
English novelist.

see: "AUTHORS"
see "PEOPLE" for other related links


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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]



Click picture to ZOOM
OUTCASTS

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see: "SOLITUDE"


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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"

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anathema (noun) [๊-'nๆ-th๊-m๊]
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.



Click picture to ZOOM
OUTDOORS

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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"

Camping is nature's way of promoting the motel business.
--Dave Barry (1947— )
American humorist.
Quoted in Geoff Tibballs
_The Mammoth Book of Zingers, Quips, and One-Liners_, p. 91 [2004].

The outdoors is what you have to pass through
to get from your apartment to a taxicab.
--Fran Lebowitz (1946— )
American humorist.

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alfresco [al-FRES-koh], adverb:
1. In the open air; outdoors.
2. Taking place or located in the open air; outdoor.




OVER-ESTIMATING OURSELVES

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see: "HUBRIS"
see: "SNOBS"


Humans are overconfident creatures. Ninety-four percent of
college professors believe they are above average teachers,
and 90 percent of drivers believe they are above average
behind the wheel. Researchers Paul J.H. Schoemaker and
J. Edward Russo gave computer executives quizzes on their
industry. Afterward, the executives estimated that they had
gotten 5 percent of the answers wrong. In fact, they had
gotten 80 percent of the answers wrong.
--David Brooks
"New Level of Overconfidence"
Reprinted in _Las Vegas Sun_ [28 October 2009]

A man said to the universe:
"Sir I exist!"
"However," replied the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."
--Stephen Crane (1871—1900)
American author and journalist.

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.
--Ren้ Descartes (1596—1650)
French philosopher and mathematician.
_Discours de la m้thode_ [1637] (Discourse on Method)

Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal
virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people
that I have ever known.
--F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896—1940)
American novelist.
_The Great Gatsby_, ch. 3 [1925]

A Man must have a good deal of Vanity who believes,
and a good deal of Boldness who affirms, that all the
Doctrines he holds are true, and all he rejects, are false.
--Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.
Letter to his Father & Mother [13 April 1738]

I now know all the people worth knowing in
America, and I find no intellect comparable
to my own.
--[Sarah] Margaret Fuller (1810—1850)
American critic, teacher, and woman of letters.
In Robert Chambers _The Book of Days_, p. 68.

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.
--Fran็ois 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.

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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]

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OVER-REACTION

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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]

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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 Andr้ Bernard [2000 ed.]

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OYSTERS

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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.

William Makepeace Thackeray claimed that eating his
first American oyster was like swallowing a baby.
--Michael and Ariane Batterberry
_On the Town in New York_ [1999]

It is unseasonable and unwholesome in all months that
have not an R in their names to eat an oyster.
--William Butler (1535—1618)
_Dyet's Dry Dinner_ [1599]

When Salvadore Dali was offered his first
raw oyster, he shuddered and remarked,
"I'd as soon eat a piece of Mae West!"

He was a bold man that first ate an oyster.
--Jonathan Swift (1667—1745)
Anglo-Irish poet and satirist.
_A Complete Collection of Polite and Ingenious
Conversation_ "Second Conversation" [1738]

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


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