Hawthorne and His Mosses Quotes

“It is better to fail in originality, than to succeed in imitation. He who has never failed somewhere, that man cannot 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.”
― Herman Melville, Hawthorne and His Mosses

“Would that all excellent books were foundlings, without father or mother, that so it might be, we could glorify them, without including their ostensible authors.”
― Herman Melville, Hawthorne and His Mosses