Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:
"Everything that I have seen, heard, and observed I have collected and exploited. My works have been nourished by countless different individuals, by innocent and wise ones, people of intelligence and dunces. Childhood, maturity, and old age all have brought me their thoughts...their perspectives on life. I have often reaped what others have sowed. My work is the work of a collective being that bears the name of Goethe."
Cited in Martha Woodmansee and Peter Jaszi, "The Law of Texts: Copyright and the Academy," College English, vol. 57, no. 7 (November 1995), p. 769.
„Jeder Gegenstand, wohl beschaut, schließt ein neues Organ in uns auf.“