There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but read more

There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.

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

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

To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism, to steal ideas from many is research.

To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism, to steal ideas from many is research.

We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library
filled with books in many different read more

We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library
filled with books in many different languages. The child knows
someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It
does not understand the languages in which they are they are they
are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the
arrangement of the books but doesn't know what it is. That, it
seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent being
toward God.

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.

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

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

It has come to be practically a sort of rule in literature, that
a man, having once shown himself read more

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.

The bees pillage the flowers here and there but they make honey
of them which is all their own; read more

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.
[Fr., Les abeilles pillotent deca dela les fleurs; mais elles en
font aprez le miel, qui est tout leur; ce n'est plus thym, ny
marjolaine: ainsi les pieces empruntees d'aultruy, il les
transformera et confondra pour en faire un ouvrage tout sien.]

He liked those literary cooks
Who skim the cream of others' books;
And ruin half an author's read more

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.