L'originalité consiste à essayer de faire comme tout le monde sans y parvenir. <br class="br">As quoted by Jean Cocteau in his acceptance speech http://books.google.com/books?id=QXtJAAAAMAAJ&q=%22L'originalit%C3%A9+consiste+%C3%A0+essayer+de+faire+comme+tout+le+monde+sans+y+parvenir%22&pg=PA18#v=onepage to the Académie Française (20 October 1955)
“Originality consists in trying to be like everybody else — and failing.”
Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker
Raymond Radiguet, who was quoted by Cocteau in his acceptance speech to the Académie Française (October 1955)
Misattributed
“Why can't I be different and original, like everybody else?”
Vivian Stanshall (1943–1995) English musician, artist and author
Men Opening Umbrellas Ahead
Others
“Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody else has thought.”
Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet
“Jews are like everybody else, only more so.”
John G. Schmitz (1930–2001) American politician
http://www.nndb.com/people/041/000087777/
“Passing out while you try to kill yourself is like failing at failing.”
Maddox (1978) American internet writer
How to kill yourself like a man. http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=manly_suicide <br class="br">The Best Page in the Universe
Ken Livingstone (1945) Mayor of London between 2000 and 2008
While being interviewed in the street during his dispute with several embassies for not paying Central London's congestion charge (late March 2006). The Times http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article697933.ece, 28 March 2006. <sup>[ New York Times comment http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/02/world/europe/02parking.html?_r=1&oref=slogin, 2 May 2006.]</sup>
“Why do you have to be a nonconformist like everybody else?”
James Thurber (1894–1961) American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright
