Substantially all ideas are second-hand, consciously and unconsciously drawn from a million outside sources, and daily used by the garnerer with a pride and satisfaction born of the superstition that he originated them; whereas there is not a rag of originality about them anywhere except the little discoloration they get from his mental and moral […]
Plagiarism Quotes
When a thing has been said and well said, have no scruple; take it and copy it.
It takes a thousand men to invent a telegraph, or a steam engine, or a phonograph, or a photograph, or a telephone, or any other Important thing – and the last man gets the credit and we forget the others. He added his little mite – that is all he did.
Instead of forming new words I recommend to you any kind of artful management by which you may be able to give cost to old ones.
In 1886 I read Dr. Holmes’s poems, in the Sandwich Islands. A year and a half later I stole his dedication, without knowing it, and used it to dedicate my “Innocents Abroad” with. Ten years afterward I was talking with Dr. Holmes about it. He was not an ignorant ass – no, not he;… and […]
The chairman replied in a few appropriated words.
Nothing is ours but our language, our phrasing. If a man takes that from me (knowingly, purposely) he is a thief. If he takes it unconsciously – snaking it out of some old secluded corner of his memory, and mistaking it for a new birth instead of a mummy – he is no thief, and […]
Originality is undetected plagiarism.
When a thing has been said and said well, have no scruples. Take it and copy it.
The only good copies are those which make us see the absurdity of bad originals.
