In poetry there are no teachers. One makes antiquity one’s teacher. Provided he steep his mind in the styles of antiquity and learn his diction from the great poets of old, who can fail to compose good poetry? 

 − Fujiwara no Teika, Eiga no taigai 詠歌大概 (Essentials of Poetic Composition)

 As quoted in Conversations with Shōtetsu, translated by Robert Brower