Imitation

Imitation is an advanced behavior whereby an individual observes and replicates another's. The word can be applied in many contexts, ranging from animal training to international politics.

Sourced

• Imitation is the sincerest of flattery.
  • Charles Caleb Colton, Lacon, vol. I (1820), p. 127, # 217.

• L'imitazione del male supera sempre l'esempio; comme per il contrario, l'imitazione del bene è sempre inferiore.
  • He who imitates what is evil always goes beyond the example that is set; on the contrary, he who imitates what is good always falls short.
  • Francesco Guicciardini, Storia d' Italia (1537-1540).

• Der Mensch ist ein nachahmendes Geschöpf.
  Und wer der Vorderste ist, führt die Heerde.
  • An imitative creature is man; whoever is foremost, leads the herd.
  • Friedrich Schiller, Wallenstein's Tod (1798), III, 4, 9.

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 387-88.

• Respicere exemplar vitæ morumque jubebo
  Doctum imitatorem, et veras hinc ducere voces.
  • I would advise him who wishes to imitate well, to look closely into life and manners, and thereby to learn to express them with truth.
  • Horace, Are Poetica, CCCXVII.

• Pindarum quisquis studet æmulari,
  Iule ceratis ope Dædalea
  Nititur pennis, vitreo daturus
  Nomina ponto.
  • He who studies to imitate the poet Pindar, O Julius, relies on artificial wings fastened on with wax, and is sure to give his name to a glassy sea.
  • Horace, Carmina, IV, 2, 1.

• Dociles imitandis
  Turpibus ac pravis omnes sumus.
  • We are all easily taught to imitate what is base and depraved.
  • Juvenal, Satires, XIV. 40.

• C'est un bétail servile et sot à mon avis
  Que les imitateurs.
  • Imitators are a slavish herd and fools in my opinion.
  • Jean de La Fontaine, Clymène, V, 54.