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They had their lean books with the fat of others' works.

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.

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.

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.

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 or 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 recognize his own work, his own genius, and his own style, so skillfully shall the whole be disguised. - Isaac D'Israeli,

Perish those who said our good things before we did.

When Shakespeare is charges 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." - Ralph Waldo Emerson,

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.

He that readeth good writers and pickes out their flowres for his own nose, is lyke a foole.

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.

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."

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.

For such kind of borrowing as this, if it be not bettered by the borrower, among good authors is accounted plagiary.

Copy from one, it's plagiarism; copy from two, it's research.

I recover my property wherever I find it.

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.

Amongst so many borrowed things, am glad if I can steal one, disguising and altering it for some new service.

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.

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.

Their writings are thoughts stolen from us by anticipation.