“Original thought is like original sin: both happened before you were born to people you could not have possibly met.”

—  Fran Lebowitz, book Social Studies

"People".
Social Studies (1981)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Dec. 10, 2025. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Original thought is like original sin: both happened before you were born to people you could not have possibly met." by Fran Lebowitz?
Fran Lebowitz photo
Fran Lebowitz34
author and public speaker from the United States 1950

Related quotes

Warren Farrell photo

“In the past we believed both sexes were born with original sin. Today, we have come to unconsciously believe in the original sin of boys, but the original innocence of girls.”

Warren Farrell (1943) author, spokesperson, expert witness, political candidate

page 103.
Father and Child Reunion (2001)

Dante Alighieri photo

“Consider your origin;
you were not born to live like brutes,
but to follow virtue and knowledge.”

Dante Alighieri book Inferno

Canto XXVI, lines 118–120.
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Inferno

“You were born original don't die a copy”

Ben Mikaelsen (1952) writer

Herbert Read photo

“Poetry is creative expression; Prose is constructive expression. … by creative I mean original. In Poetry the words are born or reborn in the act of thinking. … There is no time interval between the words and the thought when a real poet writes, both of them happen together, and both the thought and the word are Poetry.”

Herbert Read (1893–1968) English anarchist, poet, and critic of literature and art

English Prose Style (1928)
Literary Quotes

Alain-René Lesage photo

“Pride and conceit were the original sin of man.”

Alain-René Lesage book Gil Blas

Book VII, ch. 3.
Gil Blas (1715-1735)

Edward St. Aubyn photo

“Thank goodness there were people who were happy with nothing, thought Julia, so that people like her (and everyone else she had ever met), could have more.”

Edward St. Aubyn (1960) British writer

At Last, Chapter 7

Sue Monk Kidd photo

“Look, I know you meant well creating the world and all, but how could you let it get away from you like this? How come you couldn't stick with your original idea of paradise? People's lives were a mess.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

Mitch Albom photo

“Things that happen before you are born still affect you and people who come before your time affect you as well.”

Mitch Albom book The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Source: The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Richard Bach photo

“The original sin is to limit the Is.”

Richard Bach book Illusions

—Don't.
Source: Illusions : The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)

Laurell K. Hamilton photo

“A person likes to think of himself in a certain way, and when something happens that makes that no longer possible, you mourn the old self. The person you thought you were.”

Laurell K. Hamilton (1963) Novelist

Vampire Requiem, to Anita; p. 311
Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series, Incubus Dreams (2004)

Related topics