Named source · 1850

Hawthorne and His Mosses Quotes by Herman Melville: Context & Meanings

1 quotation linked to Hawthorne and His Mosses by or associated with Herman Melville, with source notes, explanations and related topics.

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But it is better to fail in originality, than to succeed in imitation.

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“But it is better to fail in originality, than to succeed in imitation.”

Herman Melville

Meaning & context

Melville values an authentic creative attempt above technically successful copying, making independent invention more important than safe imitation.

Source details

“Hawthorne and His Mosses” (1850), represented in Billy Budd and Other Prose Pieces, Project Gutenberg #76513. Melville is arguing for literary originality and an independent American voice; the sentence is about creative imitation, not a universal ranking of every failure above every success.

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