It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation. Herman Melville
Originality is a thing we constantly clamour for, and constantly quarrel with. Thomas Carlyle
It is perfectly easy to be original by violating the laws of decency and the canons of good taste. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
Originality is the fine art of remembering what you hear but forgetting where you heard it. Laurence J Peter
Originality does not consist in saying what no one has ever said before, but in saying exactly what you think yourself. James Stephens.
The more original a discovery, the more obvious it seems afterwards. Arthur Koestler
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
Don’t be a blueprint. Be an original. Roy Acuff
Be yourself. The world worships the original. Ingrid Bergman
Originality usually amounts only to plagiarizing something unfamiliar. Katharine Fullerton Gerould
It is too easy to be original by doing the opposite of what everyone else is doing; this is just mechanical. Antonio Gramsci
A man is an original when he speaks the truth that has always been known to all good men. Patrick Kavanagh
Some writers confuse authenticity, which they ought always to aim at, with originality, which they should never bother about. W H Auden