To be perfectly original one should think much and read little, and this is impossible, for one must have read before one has learnt to think.

Lord Byron, on the paradox of being original and combining previous influences. A crisis of any creator, artistic or scientific.

Maria Popova assembles a masterful collection of advice to reconcile this paradox: The Art of Scientific Investigation (1957), Part I: The Role of Openness and Serendipity in Creativity and Discovery

(via jtotheizzoe)

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