Poetics

by Aristotle

Imitation is natural to man from childhood, one of his advantages over the lower animals being this, that he is the most imitative creature in the world, and learns at first by imitation.

to be learning something is the greatest of pleasures not only to the philosopher but also to the rest of mankind, however small their capacity for it;

A tragedy, then, is the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself;