"The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity...." - Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson

“A just thinker will allow full swing to his scepticism. I dip my pen in the blackest ink, because I am not afraid of falling into my inkpot.... We are of different opinions at different hours, but we always may be said to be at heart on the side of truth.”

“Discontent is want of self-reliance; it is infirmity of will.”

“Fine manners need the support of fine manners in others.”

“The painter will produce pictures of little merit if he takes the works of others as his standard.”

“Immitation is suicide.”

“What does it mean for a painter to paint in the manner of So-and-So or to actually imitate someone else? What's wrong with that? On the contrary, it's a good idea. You should constantly try to paint like someone else. But the thing is, you can't! You would like to. You try. But it turns out to be a botch... And it's at the very moment you make a botch of it that you're yourself.”

“Never imitate the eccentricities of genius, but toil after it in its truer flights. They are not so easy to follow, but they lead to higher regions.”

“This fellow pecks up wit, as pigeons peas; And utters it again when God doth please: He is wit's pedler; and retails his wares.”

“Nature constantly imitates art.”