It is absolutely necessary that at some moment or other in one's career
one should reach the point, not of despising all that is outside
oneself, but of abandoning for ever that almost blind fanaticism which
impels us all to imitate the great masters, and to swear only by their
works. It is necessary to say to oneself, That is good for Rubens, this
for Raphael, Titian, or Michael Angelo. What they have done is their own
business; I am not bound to this master or to that. It is necessary to
learn to make what one has found one's own: a pinch of personal
inspiration is worth everything else.
_Delacroix._