[4]
The first point, then, that we must realise is that
imitation alone is not sufficient, if only for the reason
that a sluggish nature is only too ready to rest
content with the inventions of others. For what
would have happened in the days when models were
not, if men had decided to do and think of nothing
that they did not know already? The answer is
obvious: nothing would ever have been discovered.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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