"Imitation is the sincerest form of robbery" How do you interpret or explain this?

Answer 1

"There seem to be but three ways for a nation to acquire wealth. The first is by war, as the Romans did, in plundering their conquered neighbors. This is robbery. The second by commerce, which is generally cheating. The third by agriculture, the only honest way, wherein man receives a real increase of the seed thrown into the ground, in a kind of continual miracle, wrought by the hand of God in his favor, as a reward for his innocent life and his virtuous industry."


"When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other."

"Man is an idiot. He doesn't know how to do anything without copying, without imitating, without plagiarizing, without aping. It might even have been that man invented generation by coitus after seeing the grasshopper copulate."

"Example has more followers than reason. We unconsciously imitate what pleases us, and approximate to the characters we most admire."

Answer 2

The typical adage is that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, rather than robbery. To imitate someone is to pay the person a genuine compliment—often an unintended compliment.
http://www.bartleby.com/59/3/imitationist.html

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Cheers,
Bruce

Answer 3

imitation is the sincerest form of flattery is the usual saying.

this is a slight alteration which has merit.

If you are going to steal something, better to steal an idea, or something intangible that does not deprive the owner.