Yes. That saying probably[1] started life with the quote from TS Elliot, who said "Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take

Yes. That saying probably[1] started life with the quote from TS Elliot, who said "Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different." The composer Igor Stravinsky "took" that and changed it to “A good composer does not imitate; he steals.” and after that quote was further changed in the LaTex documentation (believe it or not), Steve Jobs took it and changed it to be Pablo Picasso saying "Lesser artists copy, great artists steal". It doesn't seem there's any evidence of Picasso saying it although Steve Jobs said a lot that Picasso said it. [1] https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/03/06/artists-steal/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/03/06/artists-steal/