thursday thoughts pt. 51

"It is better to fail in originality, than to succeed in imitation." I've always liked this quote. To be fair, a lot of the quotes I like are about originality and being yourself. Which is such a cliché, but that can't be helped - it's important. At first, being your true original, unique self was all I got from this, but then I realized there's more layers to the quote. Originality against imitation, but also failure against success. It even continues: "He who has never failed somewhere, that man can not be great. Failure is the true test of greatness. And if it be said, that continual success is a proof that a man wisely knows his powers, — it is only to be added, that, in that case, he knows them to be small." I love how in this way, it's failing that is the positive side instead of success. That's definitely not how it's looked at most of the time. That's definitely not how I look at it most of the time. But without failure, there's no learning, no growing, no getting better and striving for greatness. And, truly, if one only succeeds, it tells more about how little they are doing to try new things, become better and not only do things they know they can do well. So, here's to all of us doing our own thing and failing along the way sometimes in order to become great(er)!