imitation quotes

The Muses'garden, with pedantic weeds O'erspread, was purged by thee; the lazy seeds Of servile imitation thrown away, And fresh invention planted.

-Thomas Carew
  'An Elegy upon the Death of the Dean of Paul's, Dr.  John Donne'.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

- Charles Caleb Colton
  Lacon, vol.1, no.217.

Manhasthreeways ofacting wisely.First, onmeditation; that is the noblest. Secondly, on imitation; that is the easiest. Thirdly, on experience; that is the bitterest.

-'The MasterK'ung' Confucius or K'ung Fu-tse
c.479  BC  The Analects.

Les beaute  s ont, dans les arts, le me"  me fondement que les ve  rite  s dans la philosophie.Qu'est-ce que la ve  rite  ? La conformite   de nos jugements avec les e"  tres. Qu'est-ce que la beaute   d'imitation? La conformite   de l'image avec la chose. Beauty has in art the same foundation as does truth in philosophy. What is the truth? The conformity of our judgements with beings. What is the beauty of imitation? The conformity of the image with the thing.

- Denis Diderot
  Entretiens sur le fils naturel, pt.3.

Poetry therefore, is an art of imitation† A speaking picture, with this end: to teach and delight.

- Sir Philip Sidney
  The Defence of Poetry.

Comedy is an imitation of the common errors of our life, which he representeth in the most ridiculous and scornful sort that may be, so as it is impossible that any beholder can be content to be such a one.

- Sir Philip Sidney
  The Defence of Poetry.

Nature is commonplace. Imitation is more interesting.

- Gertrude Stein
Quoted in Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin MyAutobiography (1964).