..if I dont do something on the grand scale, it is that my genius is altogether imitative, and that I have nor recently encountered any very striking models of grandeur.

Henry James
About This Quote

The truth of the matter is that a lot of great things in life are the direct result of imitation. Take for example, The Great Gatsby. This is a book that was written after one person had read the works of another great author. The same thing can be said about many other great works of art, music, architecture etc. The key to true greatness lies in the ability to take inspiration from other people’s ideas and to use their work as a jumping off point for your own ideas.

Source: Roderick Hudson

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More Quotes By Henry James
  1. It has made me better loving you.. it has made me wiser, and easier, and brighter. I used to want a great many things before, and to be angry that I did not have them. Theoretically, I was satisfied. <span style="margin:15px; display:block"></span>I flattered myself that...
  2. I'm yours for ever--for ever and ever. Here I stand; I'm as firm as a rock. If you'll only trust me, how little you'll be disappointed. Be mine as I am yours.
  3. Live all you can: it's a mistake not to. It doesn't matter what you do in particular, so long as you have had your life. If you haven't had that, what have you had?
  4. True happiness, we are told, consists in getting out of one's self; but the point is not only to get out - you must stay out; and to stay out you must have some absorbing errand.
  5. She took refuge on the firm ground of fiction, through which indeed there curled the blue river of truth.
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