Originality is not something continuous but something intermittent - a flash of the briefest duration. One must have the time and be watchful (be attuned) to catch the flash and fix it. One must know how to catch and preserve these scant flakes of gold sluiced out of the sand and rocks of everyday life. Originality does not come nugget-size.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Originality is rare and brief. You must be watchful to catch and preserve these small flashes of insight from daily life.
- In plain terms
- Catch original ideas when they appear briefly.
- What can you take from it?
- Stay ready to capture sudden insights.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Are you noticing flashes?
- How do you save ideas?
Another view
Some insights may be too trivial to preserve.
More from Eric Hoffer
What counts most is holding on. The growth of a train of thought is not a direct forward flow. There is a succession of spurts separated by intervals of stagna…
Permalink to quote #152 A good sentence is a key. It unlocks the mind of the reader.
Permalink to quote #154 Total innovation is a flight from comparison and also from imitation. Those who discover things for themselves and express them in their own way are not overly…
Permalink to quote #151
Related quotes
This triviality made him think of collecting many such moments together in a book of epiphanies. By an epiphany he meant a sudden spiritual manifestation, whet…
James JoyceJames Joyce quote #55 The trouble with him was that he was without imagination. He was quick and alert in the things of life, but only in the things, and not in the significances.
Jack LondonJack London quote #1 I remember I used to half believe and wholly play with fairies when I was a child. What heaven can be more real than to retain the spirit-world of childhood, t…
Beatrix PotterBeatrix Potter quote #1