“And, after all, what is originality? It is merely undetected plagiarism.” ~ Herbert Paul, 1896
“The kernel, the soul — let us go further and say the substance, the bulk, the actual and valuable material of all human utterances — is plagiarism. For substantially all ideas are second-hand, consciously and unconsciously drawn from a million outside sources, and daily used by the garnerer with a pride and satisfaction born of the superstition that he originated them; whereas there is not a rag of originality about them anywhere except the little discoloration they get from his mental and moral calibre and his temperament, and which is revealed in characteristics of phrasing.” ~ Mark Twain, 1903
“There’s no such thing as originality, just authenticity.” ~ Helene Hegemann, 2012
