A Quote by Marcel Duchamp

Tradition is the great misleader because it's too easy to follow what has already been done - even though you may think you're giving it a kick. I was really trying to invent, instead of merely expressing myself.

Marcel Duchamp

Quote Topics

Because Been Done Easy Even Expressing Follow Giving Great Instead Invent Kick May Merely Myself Really Think Though Too Tradition Trying

Quote Author

Marcel Duchamp
French - Artist
July 28, 1887 - October 2, 1968

The urge to break with a tradition is only appropriate when you're dealing with an outdated, troublesome tradition: I never really thought about that because I take the old-fashioned approach of equating tradition with value (which may be a failing). But whatever the case, positive tradition can also provoke opposition if it's too powerful, too overwhelming, too demanding. That would basically be about the human side of wanting to hold your own.

Gerhard Richter

It's always been important to us to be original, which sounds really easy when you say it. Everyone says it all the time, but it's actually not that easy to be original. It's also something scary because if you're doing stuff that doesn't sound like anything else, I think a lot of people get scared of that. A lot of people tend to follow instead, they wait for something else to do something new and then they follow that. We just don't like to do that.

Christian Karlsson

Tradition is only democracy extended through time; it may be defined as an extension of the franchise. Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who are merely walking about. All democrats object to men being disqualified by accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by accident of death. Democracy tells us not to neglect a good man's opinion, even if he is our father.

Gilbert K. Chesterton

I'm not political in the sense of activity. My activity, I guess, are the films. I can't really say if I'm worried or a bit optimistic. I think in a funny way I'm a little bit optimistic because even though nothing has really changed, and even though the governments keep changing and there's always chaos in the Arab world because it's not easy to cope with politically, for me it's really interesting.

Eran Riklis

These days I'm often called a Deviant Calvinist, but I don't really think my views do deviate from the Reformed tradition, though in some respects they may represent views that are not as popular now as they once were, or that may represent a minority report in the tradition.

Oliver D. Crisp

A lot of times, you're not necessarily off the page because you haven't been able to take the time to prepare a character. It's very easy to find even great actors reading it more like a reading. Things aren't really coming alive yet, even though you know they will.

Gus Van Sant

All I really think about is, 'Don't try to kick the ball too hard,' because a lot of times when I missed kicks, it was because I tried to kill it. I just try to think of a smooth swing, being slow and under control, and making the kick.

Stephen Gostkowski

A lot of these people, these program directors, just like anybody else in the world, even though they're supposed to be leaders in the world, they're followers. They follow what they think someone else is doing, instead of trying to blaze a trail.

Talib Kweli

I really wish this wasn't a thing. But this tumor is a thing. Even though it's not what I would have chosen for myself, that doesn't necessarily mean it has to be all bad. What I keep trying to remind myself is this is one of those things that looks like a really bad thing on the outside but I know too little about life to be sure.

Simone Giertz

It seems other rap artists are trying to follow a "tradition", or something... I don't consider us [Migos] as weirdos, we just went the other way and didn't follow the rap tradition. We just killed it and made it our tradition.

Quavo

I listen to music a great deal. In a way, it's trying to express things that can't be expressed in words. That's something that interests me, too. Even though I use words to express myself, I am trying to, it seems to me, get beyond that.

John Ashbery

I like to count myself as someone who doesn't follow that stuff and someone who's just trying to invent stories and characters and movies that are just funny and work because they're good and not because they're a slight variation that were hot a few months ago.

Scot Armstrong

For me it's a dedication to your real interests. It's an ability to be open-minded. Without an open-minded mind, you can never be a great success. The great artists have been open-minded, even though they may seem, like Picasso, to be very directed, you can be directed and open-minded at the same time. I think you have to be really intensely serious about your work, but not so serious that you can't see the lightness that may also involve your life. You have to have that lightness too. You have to not be so heavy-handed and so ostentatious. It's very important not to be.

Martha Stewart

The Western music tradition is mostly addressed to a public that has a critical mind, and judges the quality of the writing, of the interpretation. And I think it is a great tradition! It pushes the musicians to always go further, and to never stop pushing the limits and explore what can be done with sounds. And great pieces of art were born from that tradition.

Gaspar Claus

It’s very easy for me to gain weight. Even though I tried not eating for a week when I was really young, I couldn’t do it any longer because I liked my food too much.