“Plagiarists, at least, have the merit of preservation.”

— Benjamin Disraeli

Isaac D'Isaeli, Curiosities of Literature, "Of Suppressors and Dilapidators of Manuscripts".
Misattributed, Isaac D'Israeli

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update May 19, 2022. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Plagiarists, at least, have the merit of preservation." by Benjamin Disraeli?

Benjamin Disraeli photo

Benjamin Disraeli 306

British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Pri… 1804–1881

Related quotes

“Plagiarists, at least, have the merit of preservation.”

Isaac D'Israeli (1766–1848) British writer

Of Suppressors and Dilapidators of Manuscripts.
Curiosities of Literature (1791–1834)

“A government which cannot be reformed does not merit to be preserved.”

John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton (1834–1902) British politician and historian

Private notes, quoted in Gertrude Himmelfarb, Lord Acton: A Study in Conscience and Politics (1952), p. 74
Undated

“I do hope, that if I ever do anything, at least to have the merit of not copying anyone.”

Frédéric Bazille (1841–1870) French painter

Quote in Bazille's letter to his father, 1864; as cited in: article: Frédéric Bazille and the Birth of Impressionism, Corrinne Chong, PhD -independent scholar http://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/autumn17/chong-reviews-frederic-bazille-and-the-birth-of-impressionism
1861 - 1865

“I have the intention to dedicate Le Gibet to you. It is not because I think you merit a rope to hang yourself, but because it is the least difficult of the three pieces.”

Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) French composer

Ravel to pianist Jean Marnold about Le Gibet from Gaspard de la Nuit

“It has been said of compliments, that men are most flattered by having the merits attributed to them which they least possess; but as it is only by liars that such compliments can be proffered, so it is only with fools that they can find a favourable acceptation.”

Henry Taylor (1800–1886) English playwright and poet

Source: The Statesman (1836), Ch. 31 p. 236

“The well-meaning contention that all ideas have equal merit seems to me little different from the disastrous contention that no ideas have any merit.”

Carl Sagan book Broca's Brain

Introduction (p. xii)
Broca's Brain (1979)

“There are no moral or intellectual merits. Homer composed the Odyssey; if we postulate an infinite period of time, with infinite circumstances and changes, the impossible thing is not to compose the Odyssey, at least once.”

Jorge Luis Borges book The Immortal

"The Immortal" (1949)

“There is endless merit in a man's knowing when to have done.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

Dr. Francia (1845).
1820s, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827–1855)

“To have merit to abstain from a fault, is a manner to be guilty.”

Marguerite Yourcenar (1903–1987) French writer

Avoir du mérite à s'abstenir d'une faute, c'est une façon d'être coupable.
Alexis (1929)

“Without feeling abashed by my ignorance, I confess that I am absolutely unable to say. In the absence of an appearance of learning, my answer has at least one merit, that of perfect sincerity.”

Jean Henri Fabre (1823–1915) French entomologist and author

Writing about the horns of Onthophagus, in 'The Onthophagi'

Related topics