About the most originality that any writer can hope to achieve honestly is to steal with good judgment.
And for the citation of so many authors, 'tis the easiest thing in nature. Find out one of these books with an alphabetical index, and without any farther ceremony, remove it verbatim into your own… there are fools enough to be thus drawn into an opinion of the work; at least, such a flourishing train of attendants will give your book a fashionable air, and recommend it for sale.
Copy from one, it's plagiarism; copy from two, it's research.
Genius Borrows nobly.
He invades authors like a monarch; and what would be theft in other poets is only victory in him.
I don't think anybody steals anything; all of us borrow.
Ideas improve. The meaning of words participates in the improvement. Plagiarism is necessary. Progress implies it. It embraces an author's phrase, makes use of his expressions, erases a false idea, and replaces it with the right idea.
If you steal from one author, it's plagiarism; if you steal from many, it's research.
Immature artists imitate. Mature artists steal.
Most writers steal a good thing when they can, and when 'Tis safely got 'Tis worth the winning. The worst of 't is we now and then detect em, they ever dream that we suspect em.
Nothing is new except arrangement.
Nothing is said which has not been said before.
Perish those who said our good things before we did.
Plagiarists are always suspicious of being stolen from.
Plagiarists at least have the quality of preservation.
So much of what I am I got from you. I had no idea how much of it was secondhand.
Stealing things is a glorious occupation, particularly in the art world.
Taking something from one man and making it worse is plagiarism.
The human plagiarism which is most difficult to avoid, for individuals… is the plagiarism of ourselves.
The immature artist imitates. The mature artist steals.