Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those who we cannot resemble.
An original artist is unable to copy. So he has only to copy in order to be original.
Artistic genius is an expansion of monkey imitativeness.
Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.
He who never walks except where he sees other men's tracks will make no discoveries.
I have found some of the best reasons I ever had for remaining at the bottom simply by looking at the men at the top.
Imitation belittles.
Imitation is suicide.
Imitation is the sincerest form of television.
Imitation, if it is not forgery, is a fine thing. It stems from a generous impulse, and a realistic sense of what can and cannot be done.
It is well to respect the leader. Learn from him. Observe him. Study him. But don't worship him. Believe you can surpass. Believe you can go beyond. Those who harbor the second-best attitude are invariably second-best doers.
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's natural character is to imitate; that of the sensitive man is to resemble as closely as possible the person whom he loves. It is only by imitating the vices of others that I have earned my misfortunes.
Men nearly always follow the tracks made by others and proceed in their affairs by imitation, even though they cannot entirely keep to the tracks of others or emulate the prowess of their models. So a prudent man should always follow in the footsteps of great men and imitate those who have been outstanding. If his own prowess fails to compare with theirs, at least it has an air of greatness about it. He should behave like those archers who, if they are skilful, when the target seems too distant, know the capabilities of their bow and aim a good deal higher than their objective, not in order to shoot so high but so that by aiming high they can reach the target.
Nature is commonplace. Imitation is more interesting.
No man was ever great by imitation.
One who imitates what is bad always goes beyond his model; while one who imitates what is good always comes up short of it.
Posterity weaves no garlands for imitators.
Simplicity of all things is the hardest to be copy.
The only good imitations are those that poke fun at bad originals.