Impulses towards “the classical” and “the creative” both may function in literary goals and composition. Some critics pose these motives in opposition to each other but their relationship can be both complementary and contrasting. Such a point can find support in many literary critics’ argument, from Plato and Aristotle in the ancient world, to Alexander Pope and Wordsworth of later times. In the article, Friedrich Nietzsche, Oscar Wilde, and T. S. Eliot who are close in living years will be discussed concerning their argument about “the classical” and the “creative”. Nietzsche’s theory of the balance between the Apollonian and Dionysian, Wilde’s argument about the tension between the individual and the collective, and Eliot’s discussion of the interaction between tradition and the individual talent all contribute to the point that “the classical” and “the creative” have been perceived in a contrastive as well as collaborative relationship.