Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Plagiarism
They lard their lean books with the fat of others’ works.
Burton—Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
We can say nothing but what hath been said,
***Our poets steal from Homer***
Our storydressers do as much; he that comes last is commonly best.
Burton—Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
Who, to patch up his fame—or fill his purse—
Still pilfers wretched plans, and makes them worse;
Like gypsies, lest the stolen brat be known,
Defacing first, then claiming for his own.
Churchill—The Apology. L. 232.
Because they commonly make use of treasure found in books, as of other treasure belonging to the dead and hidden underground; for they dispose of both with great secrecy, defacing the shape and image of the one as much as of the other.
Davenant—Gondibert. Preface.
The Plagiarism of orators is the art, or an ingenious and easy mode, which some adroitly employ to change, or disguise, all sorts of speeches of their own composition, or that of other authors, for their pleasure, or their utility; in such a manner that it becomes impossible even for the author himself to recognise his own work, his own genius, and his own style, so skilfully shall the whole be disguised.
Isaac D’Israeli—Curiosities of Literature. Professors of Plagiarism and Obscurity.
Pereant qui ante nos nostra dixerent.
Perish those who said our good things before we did.
Ælius Donatus, according to St. Jerome—Commentary on Ecclesiastes. Ch. I. Referring to the words of Terence.
When Shakespeare is charged with debts to his authors, Landor replies, “Yet he was more original than his originals. He breathed upon dead bodies and brought them into life.”
Emerson—Letters and Social Aims. Quotation and Originality.
It has come to be practically a sort of rule in literature, that a man, having once shown himself capable of original writing, is entitled thenceforth to steal from the writings of others at discretion.
Emerson—Shakespeare.
He that readeth good writers and pickes out their flowres for his own nose, is lyke a foole.
Stephen Gosson—In the School of Abuse. Loyterers.
When ’Omer smote ’is bloomin’ lyre,
He’d ’eard men sing by land an’ sea;
An’ what he thought ’e might require,
’E went an’ took—the same as me.
Kipling—Barrack-Room Ballads. Introduction.
My books need no one to accuse or judge you: the page which is yours stands up against you and says, “You are a thief.”
Martial—Epigrams. Bk. I. Ep. 53.
Why, simpleton, do you mix your verses with mine? What have you to do, foolish man, with writings that convict you of theft? Why do you attempt to associate foxes with lions, and make owls pass for eagles? Though you had one of Ladas’s legs, you would not be able, blockhead, to run with the other leg of wood.
Martial—Epigrams. Bk. X. Ep. 100.
For such kind of borrowing as this, if it be not bettered by the borrower, among good authors is accounted plagiary.
Milton—Iconoclastes. XXIII.
Je reprends mon bien où je le trouve.
I recover my property wherever I find it.
Molière. Cyrano de Bergerac incorporated a scene confidentially communicated to him by Molière, in his Pédant Joué. II. 4. Molière taking possession, used it in his Les Fourberies de Scapin. Emerson—Letters and Social Aims, attributes the mot to Marmontel.
Les abeilles pillotent decà delà les fleurs; mais elles en font aprez le miel, qui est tout leur; ce n’est plus thym, ny marjolaine: ainsi les pièces empruntées d’aultruy, il les transformera et confondra pour en faire un ouvrage tout sien.
The bees pillage the flowers here and there but they make honey of them which is all their own; it is no longer thyme or marjolaine: so the pieces borrowed from others he will transform and mix up into a work all his own.
Montaigne—Essays. Bk. I. Ch. XXV.
Amongst so many borrowed things, am glad if I can steal one, disguising and altering it for some new service.
Montaigne—Essays. Of Physiognomy.
He liked those literary cooks
Who skim the cream of others’ books;
And ruin half an author’s graces
By plucking bon-mots from their places.
Hannah More—Florio, the Bas Blue.
Take the whole range of imaginative literature, and we are all wholesale borrowers. In every matter that relates to invention, to use, or beauty or form, we are borrowers.
Wendell Phillips—Lecture. The Lost Arts.
Leurs écrits sont des vois qu’ils nous ont faits d’avance.
Their writings are thoughts stolen from us by anticipation.
Piron—La Métromanie. III. 6.
Next o’er his books his eyes began to roll,
In pleasing memory of all he stole;
How here he sipp’d, how there he plunder’d snug,
And suck’d all o’er like an industrious bug.
Pope—Dunciad. Bk. I. L. 127.
With him most authors steal their works, or buy;
Garth did not write his own Dispensary.
Pope—Essay on Criticism. L. 618.
The seed ye sow, another reaps;
The wealth ye find, another keeps:
The robes ye weave, another wears:
The arms ye forge another bears.
Shelley—To the Men of England.
Steal!—to be sure they may; and egad, serve your best thoughts as gypsies do stolen children, disfigure them to make ’em pass for their own.
R. B. Sheridan—The Critic. Act I. Sc. 1.
Libertas et natale solum.
Fine words! I wonder where you stole ’em.
Swift. Upon Chief Justice Whitshed’s Motto for his coach. (1724).
Nullum est jam dictum quod non dictum sit primus.
Nothing is said nowadays that has not been said before.
Terence—Ennuchus. Prologue. XLI. As quoted by Donatus. See Warton—Essay on Pope. Note I. P. 88. Ed. 1806.
Hos ego versiculos feci, tulit alter honores
Sic vos non vobis nidificatis aves:
Sic vos non vobis vellera fertis oves:
Sic vos non vobis mellificatis apes:
Sic vos non vobis fertis aratra boves.
I wrote these lines; another wears the bays:
Thus you for others build your nests, O birds:
Thus you for others bear your fleece, O sheep:
Thus you for others honey make, O bees:
Thus you for others drag the plough, O kine.
Vergil—Claudius Donatus. Delphin ed. of Life of Vergil. 1830. P. 17.
Call them if you please bookmakers, not authors; range them rather among second-hand dealers than plagiarists.
Voltaire—A Philosophical Dictionary. Plagiarism.
Who borrow much, then fairly make it known,
And damn it with improvements of their own.
Young—Love of Fame. Satire III. L. 23.