Quote by Augusto Roa Bastos

Man is an idiot. He doesn't know how to do anything without copying, without imitating, without plagiarizing, without aping. It might even have been that man invented generation by coitus after seeing the grasshopper copulate.

Man is an idiot. He doesn't know how to do anything without

Summary

This quote, attributed to French author and philosopher Victor Hugo, suggests that humans lack originality and constantly rely on imitation or duplication. The statement implies that our actions, inventions, and even the way we procreate are all products of observing and mimicking other species or individuals. It carries a slightly satirical tone, pointing out the human inclination to replicate rather than innovate, indicating a certain lack of ingenuity and independent thinking.

Topics

Imitation

By Augusto Roa Bastos

Liked the quote? Share it with your friends.

Random Quotations

I sing a lot about love.

I sing a lot about love.

Love

My dad was the district attorney of New Orleans for about 30

My dad was the district attorney of New Orleans for about 30 years. And when he opened his campaign headquarters back in the early '70s, when I was 5 years old, my mother wanted me to play the national anthem. And they got an upright piano on the back of a flatbed truck and I played it.

Harry Connick, Jr.

Dad

We are born of love; Love is our mother.

We are born of love; Love is our mother.

When people are in love, I don't see anything wrong with it

When people are in love, I don't see anything wrong with it in the world. If they choose to live their lives and get married, why should we interfere? A lot of people don't agree with me, but that's how I feel.

Love People Wrongs

I'm proud of all your achievement. You've worked hard for th

I'm proud of all your achievement. You've worked hard for them. I'm proud of your looks and your intelligence - which some far distant ancestor handed down. But I'm most proud of your being just you. 'Success' would be an extra - but you are special to me whatever you do.

Praise

I don't need to be asking for money for local museums and ot

I don't need to be asking for money for local museums and other projects just to make me look good back home.

Home

It would be foolish to describe the logistics hub as merely

It would be foolish to describe the logistics hub as merely ugly, for it has the horrifying, soulless, immaculate beauty characteristic of many of the workplaces of the modern world.

Alain de Botton

Beauty

I have yet to be completely submerged in reality, for drowni

I have yet to be completely submerged in reality, for drowning in the sky.

Dreams Inspirational Wishes Hopes Dreaming

Culture, the acquainting ourselves with the best that has be

Culture, the acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world, and thus with the history of the human spirit.

Culture

An odd thing about beauty, however, is that it's absence ten

An odd thing about beauty, however, is that it's absence tends not to arouse our sympathy as much as other forms of privation do.

Jonathan Franzen

Beauty Privation

Freedom - an occupied space which must be reoccupied every d

Freedom - an occupied space which must be reoccupied every day.

John Ralston Saul

Freedom

You never know how much you really believe anything until it

You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth of falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn't you then first discover how much you really trusted it?

Trust Belief Confidence