One who imitates what is bad always goes beyond his model; while one who imitates what is good always comes up short of it.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The bad gains respect through imitation, the good loses it especially in art.
People tend to believe the bad rather than the good.
The difference between a bad artist and a good one is: the bad artist seems to copy a great deal; the good one really does.
Good and bad are really arbitrary words when it comes to character.
A lot of things you just stumble into: relationships or ways of putting characters opposite one another that really worked. So then it's not always so much about imitating other people, but imitating yourself, at least in your thinking.
If you look in real life, it is very hard to describe people as good people, bad people, heroes or villains. People aren't bad people. They all have their justifications.
People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy.
He who would do good to another must do it in Minute Particulars: general Good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite, and flatterer, for Art and Science cannot exist but in minutely organized Particulars.
The good man is he who rules himself as he does his own property: his autonomous being is modelled on material power.
We do not imitate, but are a model to others.