Criticism

I am bound by my own definition of criticism: a disinterested endeavour to learn and propagate the best that is known and thought in the world.

— Criticism

We should never let support blind us, or become a substitute for continuing to be both self-critical, and dedicated to our goals. We should not be dissuaded by our critics, but we should be able to honestly ask ourselves if there is anything to learn from them. Hopefully, the fact that sympathizers and critics are taking notice means that we are actually doing something.

— Criticism

CRITIC, n. A person who boasts himself hard to please because nobody tries to please him.

— Criticism

NONSENSE, n. The objections that are urged against this excellent dictionary.

— Criticism

In all of history, we have found just one cure for error—a partial antidote against making and repeating grand, foolish mistakes, a remedy against self-deception. That antidote is criticism.

— Criticism

He was in Logic, a great critic,A hair 'twixt south and south-west side.

— Criticism

I am not a critic; to me criticism is so often nothing more than the eye garrulously denouncing the shape of the peephole that gives access to hidden treasure.

— Criticism

Criticism, whatever may be its pretensions, never does more than to define the impression which is made upon it at a certain moment by a work wherein the writer himself noted the impression of the world which he received at a certain hour.

— Criticism

Those who are esteemed umpires of taste are often persons who have acquired some knowledge of admired pictures or sculptures, and have an inclination for whatever is elegant; but if you inquire whether they are beautiful souls, and whether their own acts are like fair pictures, you learn that they are selfish and sensual.

— Criticism

Whenever you feel like criticizing any one... just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.

— Criticism

To study Buddhism and then use it as a weapon in order to criticize others' theories or ideologies is wrong. The very purpose of religion is to control yourself, not to criticize others. Rather, we must criticize ourselves. How much am I doing about my anger? About my attachment, about my hatred, about my pride, my jealousy? These are the things which we must check in daily life with the knowledge of the Buddhist teachings.

— Criticism

Parodies and caricatures are the most penetrating of criticisms.

— Criticism

We must grant the artist his subject, his idea, his donné: our criticism is applied only to what he makes of it.

— Criticism

'Tis not the wholesome sharp morality,To his particular and private spleen.

— Criticism

One would think that an unsuccessful volume was like a degree in the school of reviewing. One unread work makes the judge bitter enough ; but a second failure, and he is quite desperate in his damnation. I do believe one half of the injustice — the severity of 'the ungentle craft' originates in its own want of success ; they cannot forgive the popularity which has passed them over.

— Criticism

Critics are sentinels in the grand army of letters, stationed at the corners of newspapers and reviews, to challenge every new author.

— Criticism

Criticism has plucked the imaginary flowers on the chain not in order that man shall continue to bear that chain without fantasy or consolation, but so that he shall throw off the chain and pluck the living flower.

— Criticism

The weapon of criticism cannot, of course, replace criticism by weapons.

— Criticism

People ask you for criticism, but they only want praise.

— Criticism

Whoever criticizes others must have something to replace them. Criticism without suggestion is like trying to stop flood with flood and put out fire with fire. It will surely be without worth.

— Criticism

Ten censure wrong for one who writes amiss.

— Criticism

The generous Critic fann'd the Poet's fire,And taught the world with reason to admire.

— Criticism

When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,The line too labours, and the words move slow.

— Criticism

A perfect Judge will read each work of WitWhere nature moves, and rapture warms the mind.

— Criticism

In every work regard the writer's End,Applause, in spite of trivial faults, is due.

— Criticism

Be not the first by whom the new are tried,Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.

— Criticism

Ah, ne'er so dire a thirst of glory boast,Nor in the Critic let the Man be lost.

— Criticism

Never judge a critic by your agreement with his likes and dislikes.

— Criticism

In such a time as this it is not meetThat every nice offence should bear his comment.

— Criticism

Better a little chiding than a great deal of heartbreak.

— Criticism

For 'tis a physicThat's bitter to sweet end.

— Criticism

For I am nothing, if not critical.

— Criticism

One who rejects a rebuke goes astray.

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Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but those who hate to be rebuked are stupid.

— Criticism

Let dull critics feed upon the carcases of plays; give me the taste and the dressing.

— Criticism

It is the critic's duty, I believe, to deliver honest opinions to posterity on the immediate experience of viewing movies, hoping that successors will respect their honest opinions and find them useful, rather than sneer at their insensitivity.

— Criticism

...there is no longer any serious antagonism between critics, film distributors and moviemakers... we are now... welcomed respectfully by publicists, our notices, as they used to be called, filleted for favourable comments, but generally disregarded. In these placid days one looks back nostalgically to the anger an unfavourable review could elicit.

— Criticism

...using the language of film suggests that comics are somehow subordinate to film as a discipline: a movie that doesn't move.

— Criticism

The most useful criticism in any art [form] is new work done with the same tools [as previous art].

— Criticism

When I read rules of criticism, I immediately inquire after the works of the author who has written them, and by that means discover what it is he likes in a composition.

— Criticism

As soonYou trust in critics.

— Criticism

Who shall dispute what the Reviewers say?In such a state as theirs, is downright treason.

— Criticism

Though by whim, envy, or resentment led,They damn those authors whom they never read.

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A servile raceBigots to Greece, and slaves to musty rules.

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But spite of all the criticizing elves,Those who would make us feel—must feel themselves.

— Criticism

Reviewers are usually people who would have been poets, historians, biographers, etc., if they could: they have tried their talents at one or the other, and have failed; therefore they turn critics.

— Criticism

Too nicely Jonson knew the critic's part,Nature in him was almost lost in art.

— Criticism

There are some Critics so with Spleen diseased,Who pleases one against his Will.

— Criticism

The press, the pulpit, and the stage,Conspire to censure and expose our age.

— Criticism

You know who critics are?—the men who have failed in literature and art.

— Criticism

It is much easier to be critical than to be correct.

— Criticism

The most noble criticism is that in which the critic is not the antagonist so much as the rival of the author.

— Criticism

Those who do not read criticism will rarely merit to be criticised.

— Criticism

Ill writers are usually the sharpest censors.

— Criticism

They who write ill, and they who ne'er durst write,Turn critics out of mere revenge and spite.

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All who (like him) have writ ill plays before,To execute the members of their trade.

— Criticism

"I'm an owl: you're another. Sir Critic, good day." And the barber kept on shaving.

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Blame where you must, be candid where you can,And be each critic the Good-natured Man.

— Criticism

Reviewers are forever telling authors they can't understand them. The author might often reply: Is that my fault?

— Criticism

The readers and the hearers like my books,I would my guests should praise it, not the cooks.

— Criticism

When Poets' plots in plays are damn'd for spite,They critics turn and damn the rest that write.

— Criticism

Unmoved though Witlings sneer and Rivals rail;Studious to please, yet not ashamed to fail.

— Criticism

A wise scepticism is the first attribute of a good critic.

— Criticism

Nature fits all her children with something to do,Petty conceit and his pettier jealousies.

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In truth it may be laid down as an almost universal rule that good poets are bad critics.

— Criticism

The opinion of the great body of the reading public is very materially influenced even by the unsupported assertions of those who assume a right to criticise.

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To check young Genius' proud career, And from that hour his glories faded.

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And you, my Critics! in the chequer'd shade,Admire new light thro' holes yourselves have made.

— Criticism

I lose my patience, and I own it too,These fools demand not pardon but Applause.

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For some in ancient books delight,Not to be thought expert in both.

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When in the full perfection of decay,Turn vinegar, and come again in play.

— Criticism

Reviewers, with some rare exceptions, are a most stupid and malignant race. As a bankrupt thief turns thief-taker in despair, so an unsuccessful author turns critic.

— Criticism

A poet that fails in writing becomes often a morose critic; the weak and insipid white wine makes at length excellent vinegar.

— Criticism

Of all the cants which are canted in this canting world—though the cant of hypocrites may be the worst—the cant of criticism is the most tormenting.

— Criticism

For, poems read without a name,Depend upon't their judgment's right.

— Criticism

For since he would sit on a Prophet's seat, Were it but for a wart or a mole.

— Criticism

Critics are like brushers of noblemen's clothes.

— Criticism

Why will you be always sallying out to break lances with other people's wind-mills, when your own is not capable of grinding corn for the horse you ride?

— Criticism

Criticism is not religion, and by no process can it be substituted for it. It is not the critic's eye, but the child's heart, that most truly discerns the countenance that looks out from the pages of the gospel.

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Grant me patience, just Heaven! Of all the cants which are canted in this canting world — though the cant of hypocrites may be the worst — the cant of criticism is the most tormenting.

— Criticism

An over-readiness to criticise or to depreciate a minister of Christ is proof of a lack of devotion to Christ.

— Criticism