Skip to content

True originality is not to be reached by striving after it. A man is original or he is not, as it happens, and as Heaven pleases; but, if he be original, he will be so without knowing it, and his originality will be shown in what we call the whole man, not in an assumed and startling vesture.

— Alfred Austin

Another quote →

Topics

Creativity

More quotes by Alfred Austin

Hospitality should be accidental, spontaneous, and impulsive, not pre-arranged and calculated.

Haunts of Ancient Peace (1902)

Women are more frequently charming than men, because they are less self-conscious.

The Garden That I Love: Second Series (1907)

Whatever else he may do, a critic reveals and criticises himself.

In Veronica's Garden (1895)

Show me your garden, provided it be your own, and I will tell you what you are like.

The Garden That I Love (1894)

Once learn how Nature gardens for herself, and you will be able to spare yourself a good deal of trouble.

The Garden That I Love (1894)

All Alfred Austin quotes →

You may also like

Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.

Martin Luther King Jr. Strength to Love (1963)

Enjoyment of the work consists in participation in the creative state of the artist.

Martin Heidegger Nietzsche (1961)

No decision in business provides greater potential for the creation of wealth (or its destruction, come to think of it) than the choice of which innovation to back.

Robert Heller The Decision makers (1989)

Originality consists in thinking for yourself, not in thinking differently from other people.

James Fitzjames Stephen Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (1873)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Alfred Austin (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.