Dale Carnegie Quotes

The ideas I stand for are not mine. I borrowed them from Socrates. I swiped them from Chesterfield. I stole them from Jesus. And I put them in a book. If you don't like their rules, whose would you use?

I don't read much of what I write because I worry about unintentionally borrowing something.

The actual and valuable material of all human utterances —is plagiarism. For substantially all ideas are second-hand, consciously and unconsciously drawn from a million outside sources, and daily used by the garnerer with a pride and satisfaction born of the superstition that he originated them; whereas there is not a rag of originality about them anywhere except the little discoloration they get from his mental and moral calibre and his temperament, and which is revealed in characteristics of phrasing.

Authors from whom others steal should not complain, but rejoice. Where there is no game there are no poachers.

If you steal from one author it's plagiarism; if you steal from many it's research.

When a thing has been said and well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it.

Good writers borrow from other writers. Great writers steal from them outright.

I write my own quotes. Except this one. I obviously stole this from somebody really clever.

There is no less invention in aptly applying a thought found in a book, than in being the first author of the thought.

Originality is undetected plagiarism.

I, therefore, O Caesar, do not publish this work, merely prefixing my name to a treatise which of right belongs to others, nor think of acquiring reputation by finding fault with the works of any one.

I don't steal stories. If I'm a plagiarist, so is Hitchcock. And Tolkien. And Shakespeare.

Too afraid of plagiarising someone, so I stopped reading fiction in 1981.

I decided that if my work contained what I could identify as a likeness to other work, I would remove it.'

Most books today seemed to have been written overnight from books read the day before.

When it comes to other people's writing, my older influences are more powerful than more recent ones, partially because I'm now more worried that I'll suddenly accidentally steal something from another writer.

An idea's birth is legitimate if one has the feeling that one is catching oneself plagiarizing oneself.

I got everything from someone. Nobody can be original.

What is originality? Undetected plagiarism.

If you do come up with a new idea, in 4 seconds it will belong to somebody else.

I am not really an inventor. I just steal my ideas from 8-year olds.

I do know there's a lot of music where Led Zeppelin has been leant on. We didn't do anything about it. And I wouldn't want to, either.

I rip off of every movie and TV show I've ever seen in my life.

I'm a big fan of Nora Ephron, who believed everything is copy, and I agree.

In many senses, creativity and 'plagiarism' are nearly indivisible.