-
The Past: Our cradle, not our prison; there is danger as well as appeal in its glamour. The past is for inspiration, not imitation, for continuation, not repetition.
Author:
Israel Zangwill
-
I'm no model lady. A model's just an imitation of the real thing.
Author:
Mae West
-
I'm a very big Notorious B.I.G. fan and I do an imitation of him that always cracks everybody up.
Author:
Gene Ween
-
Imitation is being rewarded. They're learning that if you fit right in the mold, you get rewarded. Music is no longer a form of expression - it's a means to a lifestyle.
Author:
Mike Watt
-
Plot, rules, nor even poetry, are not half so great beauties in tragedy or comedy as a just imitation of nature, of character, of the passions and their operations in diversified situations.
Author:
Horace Walpole
-
Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another.
Author:
Voltaire
-
Most sorts of diversion in men, children and other animals, are in imitation of fighting.
Author:
Jonathan Swift
-
Nature is commonplace. Imitation is more interesting.
Author:
Gertrude Stein
-
Probably I, like a lot of people, became a writer in imitation of or in homage to the books I enjoyed. When you're so captivated by something, you think, could I do that? Hmm, let me try.
Author:
Curtis Sittenfeld
-
All art is but imitation of nature.
Author:
Lucius Seneca
-
You know, there's so much imitation and so much pandering in Hollywood.
Author:
Tom Selleck
-
Fashion is something barbarous, for it produces innovation without reason and imitation without benefit.
Author:
George Santayana
-
Were I called on to define, very briefly, the term Art, I should call it 'the reproduction of what the Senses perceive in Nature through the veil of the soul.' The mere imitation, however accurate, of what is in Nature, entitles no man to the sacred name of 'Artist.'
Author:
Edgar Poe
-
To be as good as our fathers we must be better, imitation is not discipleship.
Author:
Wendell Phillips
-
The opponents of this process have always tried to vilify westernization as a poor imitation.
Author:
Orhan Pamuk
-
The heroes of the present will retreat to the imitation they are anyhow.
Author:
Charles Olson
-
Art is not merely an imitation of the reality of nature, but in truth a metaphysical supplement to the reality of nature, placed alongside thereof for its conquest.
Author:
Friedrich Nietzsche
-
The bad gains respect through imitation, the good loses it especially in art.
Author:
Friedrich Nietzsche
-
The Negroes have little invention, but strong powers of imitation, so that they readily acquire mechanic arts. They have a great talent for music, and all their external senses are remarkably acute.
Author:
Samuel Morton
-
Imitation is the highest form of flattery, but clones kind of get it wrong because we are promoting individuality and being proud of being yourself.
Author:
Brian Molko
-
It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.
Author:
Herman Melville
-
The properties which differentiate living matter from any kind of inorganic imitation may be instinctively felt, but can hardly be formulated without expert knowledge.
Author:
Oliver Lodge
-
To do the opposite of something is also a form of imitation, namely an imitation of its opposite.
Author:
Georg Lichtenberg
-
All bad Literature rests upon imperfect insight, or upon imitation, which may be defined as seeing at second-hand.
Author:
George Lewes
-
When I came up, it was all about originality and collective research. There is an awful lot of imitation going on now.
Author:
Steve Lacy
-
No man was ever great by imitation.
Author:
Samuel Johnson
-
Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those who we cannot resemble.
Author:
Samuel Johnson
-
I don't have to be an imitation of a white woman that Hollywood sort of hoped I'd become. I'm me, and I'm like nobody else.
Author:
Lena Horne
-
Imitation is the sincerest form of pain.
Author:
Roy Horn
-
What goes on in abstract art is the proclaiming of aesthetic principles... It is in our own time that we have become aware of pure aesthetic considerations. Art never can be imitation.
Author:
Hans Hofmann
-
Rudeness is a weak imitation of strength.
Author:
Eric Hoffer
-
My works are an imitation of my own past and present.
Author:
Barbara Hepworth
-
Of course as children, we all, in all cultures and societies, learn behavior from observation, imitation, and encouragement of various kinds. So by the suggestion made, we all 'pretend' most of the time.
Author:
Gary Gygax
-
I don't know if there is any one secret to successful writing, but one important step is to move beyond imitation and discover what you can write that no one else can - that is, find out who you are and write that in an appropriate narrative and style.
Author:
James Gunn
-
The worst acting is about imitation.
Author:
Paul Guilfoyle
-
Unfortunately what came out of it was also kind of an imitation community with a lot of mindless conformity.
Author:
Bill Griffith
-
Imitation is the sincerest flattery.
Author:
Mohandas Gandhi
-
For years that may mean imitation. Then, one day, it is like a door opening, and a new thought comes in. Why not try this instead. Suddenly he is doing something original, almost in spite of himself.
Author:
Lukas Foss
-
The theologians have recognized that the ideal is the imitation of God. If we be a part of such an organic thing, this thing is God to us, as I am God to the cells that compose me.
Author:
Charles Fort
-
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.
Author:
James Fenton
-
Anyone who draws attention to himself as an individual, is viewed with suspicion. We acquired this tendency, of course, from America, and we must resist it: levelling, and imitation of what others are already doing.
Author:
Dietrich Dieskau
-
Art begins in imitation and ends in innovation.
Author:
Mason Cooley
-
By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.
Author:
Confucius
-
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Author:
Charles Colton
-
There are works of literature whose influence is strong but indirect because it is mediated through the whole of the culture rather than immediately through imitation. Wordsworth is the case that comes to mind.
Author:
J. Coetzee
-
In everything truth surpasses the imitation and copy.
Author:
Marcus Cicero
-
The false is nothing but an imitation of the true.
Author:
Marcus Cicero
-
A long time ago, in a country not so far away, I was eight years old, doing my best Darth Vader imitation.
Author:
Hayden Christensen
-
The reason is that for many years I have avoided reading anything whatsoever that approaches my own line of country, out of a somewhat fanatical desire to avoid the risk of unconscious imitation.
Author:
Leslie Charteris
-
There is no original or primary gender a drag imitates, but gender is a kind of imitation for which there is no original.
Author:
Judith Butler
-
Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery.
Author:
Joyce Brothers
-
Imitation is flattery, and The Hills Have Eyes is a classic.
Author:
Michael Berryman
-
Unlike any other visual image, a photograph is not a rendering, an imitation or an interpretation of its subject, but actually a trace of it. No painting or drawing, however naturalist, belongs to its subject in the way that a photograph does.
Author:
John Berger
-
I think we always move from imitation to assimilation to innovation, but I can't name you 20 people outside those we've already recognized who ever got to point three: innovation.
Author:
David Baker
-
To refrain from imitation is the best revenge.
Author:
Marcus Aurelius
-
Ignorance and a narrow education lay the foundation of vice, and imitation and custom rear it up.
Author:
Mary Astell
-
I don't like traditions, I am very personal, very independent, I don't like intimate ladies, I mean in German lieder there's a lot of copy, a lot of imitation, a lot of tradition, and this I have put it aside.
Author:
Victoria Angeles
-
Imitation is the sincerest form of television.
Author:
Fred Allen
-
Men often applaud an imitation and hiss the real thing.
Author:
Aesop
