“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.”

Hawthorne and His Mosses (1850)
Context: It is better to fail in originality, than to succeed in imitation. He who has never failed somewhere, that man can not be great. Failure is the true test of greatness.
Context: It is better to fail in originality, than to succeed in imitation. He who has never failed somewhere, that man can not be great. Failure is the true test of greatness. And if it be said, that continual success is a proof that a man wisely knows his powers, — it is only to be added, that, in that case, he knows them to be small. Let us believe it, then, once for all, that there is no hope for us in these smooth pleasing writers that know their powers.

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Do you have more details about the quote "It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation." by Herman Melville?
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Herman Melville 144
American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet 1818–1891

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