Imitation Quotes

It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation. (Herman Melville)
All art is an imitation of nature. View quote
Seneca
Rudeness is a weak imitation of strength. View quote
Eric Hoffer
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.' View quote
Edgar Allan Poe
Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those who we cannot resemble. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. View quote
Charles Caleb Colton
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. View quote
Israel Zangwill
It took 200 years for the Crusaders to create [this] Muslim fanaticism. It was the exact imitation of Christian intolerance. View quote
Terry Jones
No man was ever great by imitation. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Fashion is something barbarous, for it produces innovation without reason and imitation without benefit. View quote
George Santayana
To be as good as our fathers we must be better, imitation is not discipleship. (Wendell Phillips)
To do the opposite of something is also a form of imitation, namely an imitation of its opposite. View quote
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Imitation is the sincerest form of television. View quote
Fred Allen
To refrain from imitation is the best revenge. View quote
Marcus Aurelius
I love art, and I love history, but it is living art and living history that I love. It is in the interest of living art and living history that I oppose so-called restoration. What history can there be in a building bedaubed with ornament, which cannot at the best be anything but a hopeless and lifeless imitation of the hope and vigor of the earlier world. View quote
William Morris
I'm no model lady. A model's just an imitation of the real thing. View quote
Mae West
Gender is a kind of imitation for which there is no original; in fact, it is a kind of imitation that produces the very notion of the original as an effect and consequence of the imitation itself. View quote
Judith Butler
Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery. View quote
Joyce Brothers
Most sorts of diversion in men, children and other animals, are in imitation of fighting. View quote
Jonathan Swift
Unfortunately what came out of it was also kind of an imitation community with a lot of mindless conformity. View quote
Bill Griffith
The Cube is an imitation of life itself - or even an improvement on life. (Erno Rubik)
When I came up, it was all about originality and collective research. There is an awful lot of imitation going on now. View quote
Steve Lacy
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. View quote
Lena Horne
The Great Beast is the only object of idolatry, the only ersatz of God, the only imitation of something which is infinitely far from me and which is I myself. View quote
Simone Weil
The state of conformity is an imitation of grace. View quote
Simone Weil