50 Plagiarism Quotes for Originality and Integrity

By Norbert Juma

Master quote curator and editor on a mission to inspire

Published August 13, 2023

Plagiarism quotes are widely shared among students during their academic lives.

These quotes shed some light on the importance of academic integrity, originality, and ethical writing practices.

If you are also looking for plagiarism quotes that are worthy of sharing, just take a look at our list of such quotes.

So, if interested, please continue reading!

What is meant by Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is an act where a person presents someone else’s ideas, work, or words as his/her own.

While doing so, the person doesn’t even bother to care for proper attribution.

Hence, plagiarism is a serious ethical offense.

It undermines creative endeavors and academic integrity.

Plagiarism can be seen in a variety of fields such as:

Academic settings
Professional writing
Journalism
Creative arts

How to Prevent Plagiarism

There are numerous ways to cope with the issue:

Proper Attribution
Copyright Understanding
Stick to Originality
Take Advantage of Plagiarism Detection Tools

Proper Attribution

By creating citations and offering referencing sources, it is possible to avoid plagiarism.

Whether summarizing ideas or using direct quotes, it is essential to acknowledge the work of the original creator or author.

Copyright Understanding

You also need to familiarize yourself with copyright laws.

If you respect the rights of other authors or creators, it is possible to avoid plagiarism.

For this purpose, you must seek permission from the owner of the work before using it.

Stick to Originality

Make sure to avoid the temptation of using anyone else’s content or ideas.

No matter how difficult it is to create original content, you should stick with originality.

In order to avoid plagiarism, make sure to manage your time, perform effective research, and utilize your critical thinking.

Take Advantage of Plagiarism Detection Tools

You can also utilize plagiarism detection software available online.

This helps to rectify and identify any unintentional plagiarism introduction in your content.

Promoting Academic Integrity

Academic groups and educational systems can play a critical role in stopping plagiarism.

This can be done by fostering a culture of academic integrity.

Listed below are the measures to prevent plagiarism and promote originality:

Spread Awareness
Clear Guidelines and Policies
Support and Resources

Spread Awareness

It is imperative to educate students and researchers regarding the negative impacts of plagiarism.

Educational institutions must also play a vital role in educating students about the consequences of plagiarism.

Clear Guidelines and Policies

It is also essential to enforce clear guidelines regarding plagiarism.

Unless we know the importance of ethical writing practices, it is not possible to fight against plagiarism.

Support and Resources

Offering required support to students and researchers could also prevent plagiarism.

In addition, we need to promote ethical aspects of creating original content.

Top 10 Plagiarism Quotes

Let’s start with the top 10 plagiarism quotes that are short yet meaningful.

1. “Plagiarism saves time.” — Stephen Hawking

2. “Self-plagiarism is style.” — Alfred Hitchcock

3. “Plagiarism is basic to all culture.” — Pete Seeger

4. “Art is either plagiarism or revolution.” — Paul Gauguin

5. “What is originality? Undetected plagiarism.” — William Ralph Inge

6. “All work and no plagiarism makes a dull speech.” — Jacob Braude

7. “Originality is nothing but judicious plagiarism.” — Voltaire

8. “All work and no plagiarism makes for dull sermons!” — Henry Ward Beecher

9. “It’s not plagiarism in the digital age — it’s repurposing.” — Kenneth Goldsmith

10. “l originality and no plagiarism makes for dull preaching.” — Charles Spurgeon

Funny Plagiarism Quotes

Here are some plagiarism quotes that seem funny. Enjoy these quotes and also share them with friends and family.

11. “Anything that is not autobiography is plagiarism.” — Pedro Almodovar

12. “The only “ism” Hollywood believes in is plagiarism.” — Dorothy Parker

13. “No, generally I think influence is used as a nice word for plagiarism.” — Gilbert Gottfried

14. “Composers shouldn’t think too much – it interferes with their plagiarism.” — Howard Dietz

15. “In the arts, they call it plagiarism; in business, they call it a competition.” — Andrew Mason

16. “If you steal from one author, it’s plagiarism; if you steal from many, it’s research.” — Wilson Mizner

17. “Mr. Fitzgerald-I believe that is how he spells his name-seems to believe that plagiarism begins at home.” — Zelda Fitzgerald

18. “I think the line between “inspiration” and “plagiarism” is often so thin that you risk falling into the latter one.” — Ivan Tverdovsky

19. “I could tell you which writer’s rhythms I am imitating. It’s not exactly plagiarism; it’s falling in love with good language and trying to imitate it.” — Charles Kuralt

20. “There was no crime in unconscious plagiarism; that I committed it every day, that he committed it every day, that every man alive on earth who writes or speaks commits it every day and not merely once or twice but every time he opens his mouth… there is nothing of our own in it except some slight change born of our temperament, character, environment, teachings, and associations.” — Mark Twain

Plagiarism Quotes On Originality, Ethics, and Creative Integrity

Get profound insights into the significance of originality, ethics, and creative integrity with these thought-provoking plagiarism quotes.

21. “The low-grade plagiarism of popularity will never lead you to true contentment.” — T. D. Jakes

22. “Do something others will have the desire to plagiarize but will find difficult to do.” — Robert Genn

23. “The human plagiarism which is most difficult to avoid, for individuals… is the plagiarism of ourselves.” — Marcel Proust

24. “Once you get into the world of dystopia, it’s hard to avoid plagiarism because other people have had such powerful visions.” — Anthony Horowitz

25. “Using a big word like ‘plagiarism’… always causes some damage. It will always do lasting damage, like accusations of racism.” — Michel Houellebecq

26. “Plagiarism is one of the great academic sins. It has the power to destroy a scholar or writer and turn a lifetime’s work to dust.” — Miranda Devine

27. “You don’t want to become guilty of plagiarism by letting someone else’s words get inadvertently mixed in with your own.” — Gayle Lynds

28. “Being able to design well is not always enough. Knowing the roots of design is necessary to avoid reinvention, no less inadvertent plagiarism.” — Steven Heller

29. “The only real mystery in the stories of political plagiarism is its durability in an age of Turnitin and other scanning software that can protect an author from his own mistakes, intentional or otherwise.” — Evan Osnos

30. “After some time passed in studying – and even imitating – the works of others, I would recommend the student to endeavor to be original and to remember that originality should not be undiscovered plagiarism.” — Henry Peach Robinson

Plagiarism Quotes to Know More About Plagiarism

These quotes will give you more insight into plagiarism and to know about plagiarism in detail.

31. “Imitation isn’t the sincerest form of flattery – it’s plagiarism.” — Red Skelton

32. “Originality, I fear, is too often only undetected and frequently unconscious plagiarism.” — William Ralph Inge

33. “Writing your own story around the same ideas is not plagiarism; at worst, it’s being unoriginal.” — Charles Stross

34. “Plagiarism, n. A literary coincidence compounded of a discreditable priority and an honorable subsequence.” — Ambrose Bierce

35. “Anticipatory plagiarism occurs when someone steals your original idea and publishes it a hundred years before you were born.” — Robert K. Merton

36. “If we steal thoughts from the moderns, it will be cried down as plagiarism; if from the ancients, it will be cried up as erudition.” — Charles Caleb Colton

37. “The kernel, the soul – let us go further and say the substance, the bulk, the actual and valuable material of all human utterances – is plagiarism.” — Jonathan Lethem

38. “The (post) structuralist temper requires too great a depersonalization of the writing/speaking subject. Writing becomes plagiarism; speaking becomes quoting. Meanwhile, we do write, we do speak.” — Ihab Hassan

39. “Plagiarism is necessary. Progress implies it. It embraces an author’s phrase, makes use of his expressions, erases a false idea, and replaces it with the right idea.” — Guy Debord

40. “The Plagiarism of orators is the art, or an ingenious and easy mode, which some adroitly employ to change, or disguise, all sorts of speeches of their own composition, or that of other authors, for their pleasure, or their utility; in such a manner that it becomes impossible to even for the author himself to recognize his own work, his own genius, and his own style, so skilfully shall the whole be disguised.” — Isaac D’Israeli

Plagiarism Quotes On Ethics, Identity, and Creative Influence

The following quotes show how people deal with plagiarism during their work and have tips to avoid plagiarism in your work.

41. “I firmly believe in copyrights and am put off by plagiarism.” — Gautham Menon

42. “My occupational hazard is that I can’t help plagiarizing from real life.” — Mary McCarthy

43. “I often plagiarize from myself. I like to think of this as ecological journalism: I recycle.” — Molly Ivins

44. “Plagiarism has been around far longer than the Internet.” — Megan McCafferty

45. “Certainly the plagiarism, and dealing with the fallout of it, was the most difficult thing I’ve ever faced since I started writing.” — Nora Roberts

46. “When I listen to Radio 1 and hear five different tracks in a row using old disco samples, well, that’s plagiarism, that’s taking other people’s music.” — Jay Kay

47. “What became more and more interesting to me wasn’t the I; it was the text because it’s the text that creates identity. That’s how I got interested in plagiarism.” — Kathy Acker

48. “There was no time for scholarly details, and, besides, I have always believed that a man can fairly be judged by the standards and taste of his choices in matters of high-level plagiarism.” — Hunter S. Thompson

49. “A major focus of ‘Reality Hunger’ is appropriation and plagiarism and what these terms mean. I can hardly treat the topic deeply without engaging in it. That would be like writing a book about lying and not being permitted to lie in it.” — David Shields

50. “I am now to offer some thoughts upon that sameness or familiarity which we frequently find between passages in different authors without quotation. This may be one of three things either what is called Plagiarism, Imitation, or Coincidence.” — James Boswell