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About this quote

What does it mean?
True originality happens when you try to fit in but end up distinct by accident.
In plain terms
Being original means trying to copy others but failing.
What can you take from it?
Authenticity emerges when imitation doesn't work.

Where it applies

  • creative work
  • self discovery
  • career planning

Putting it to work

  • accept natural differences
  • avoid forced uniqueness
  • embrace quirks

Questions to consider

  • Is being yourself enough to be original?
  • Can you try to be unique?

Another view

It suggests originality is accidental rather than intentional.

More from Jean Cocteau

  1. The reward of art is not fame or success but intoxication: that is why so many bad artists are unable to give it up.

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  2. I met a young man of nineteen or twenty, who at that time vibrated with all the youth of the world. This was Jean Cocteau, then a passionately imaginative yout…

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  3. Film will only become art when its materials are as inexpensive as pencil and paper.

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