Quotes about criticism

"Without the meditative background that is criticism, works become isolated gestures, historical accidents, soon forgotten."

Kundera, Milan on criticism   

"Let us consider the critic, therefore, as a discoverer of discoveries."

Kundera, Milan on criticism   

"The pleasure we feel in criticizing robs us from being moved by very beautiful things."

La Bruyere, Jean De on criticism   

"Never trust the artist. Trust the tale. The proper function of a critic is to save the tale from the artist who created it."

Lawrence, D. H. on criticism   

"There are two insults no human will endure. The assertion that he has no sense of humor and the doubly impertinent assertion that he has never known trouble."

Lewis, Sinclair on criticism
3 fans of this quote   

"If I care to listen to every criticism, let alone act on them, then this shop may as well be closed for all other businesses. I have learned to do my best, and if the end result is good then I do not care for any criticism, but if the end result is not good, then even the praise of ten angels would not make the difference."

Lincoln, Abraham on criticism   

"If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, then ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference."

Lincoln, Abraham on criticism   

"The easiest thing a human being can do is to criticize another human being."

Little, Lynn M. on criticism   

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

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth on criticism   

"Doubtless criticism was originally benignant, pointing out the beauties of a work rather that its defects. The passions of men have made it malignant, as a bad heart of Procreates turned the bed, the symbol of repose, into an instrument of torture."

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth on criticism   

"The strength of criticism lies in the weakness of the thing criticized."

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth on criticism   

"A wise skepticism is the first attribute of a good critic."

Lowell, James Russell on criticism   

"A sneer is the weapon of the weak."

Lowell, James Russell on criticism   

"Never make the mistake of assuming the critters will beat a path to your door."

Mascotte, John P. on criticism   

"People who ask for your criticism want only praise."

Maugham, W. Somerset on criticism   

"You know what the critics are. If you tell the truth they only say you're cynical and it does an author no good to get a reputation for cynicism."

Maugham, W. Somerset on criticism   

"Critical remarks are only made by people who love you."

Mayor, Federico on criticism   

"Never retract, never explain, never apologize; get things done and let them howl."

Mcclung, Nellie on criticism   

"It is critical vision alone which can mitigate the unimpeded operation of the automatic."

Mcluhan, Marshall on criticism   

"Let me tell you something that we Israelis have against Moses. He took us 40 years through the desert in order to bring us to the one spot in the Middle East that has no oil!"

Meir, Golda on criticism   

"You should never assume contempt for that which it is not very manifest that you have it in your power to possess, nor does a wit ever make a more contemptible figure than when, in attempting satire, he shows that he does not understand that which he would make the subject of his ridicule."

Melbourne, Lord on criticism   

"It is impossible to think of a man of any actual force and originality, universally recognized as having those qualities, who spent his whole life appraising and describing the work of other men."

Mencken, H. L. on criticism   

"Criticism is prejudice made plausible."

Mencken, H. L. on criticism   

"We have been educated to such a fine -- or dull -- point that we are incapable of enjoying something new, something different, until we are first told what it's all about. We don't trust our five senses; we rely on our critics and educators, all of whom are failures in the realm of creation. In short, the blind lead the blind. It's the democratic way."

Miller, Henry on criticism   

"Honest criticism means nothing: what one wants is unrestrained passion, fire for fire."

Miller, Henry on criticism
3 fans of this quote   

"A drama critic is a person who surprises the playwright by informing him what he meant."

Mizner, Wilson on criticism   

"One ought to examine himself for a very long time before thinking of condemning others."

Moliere on criticism
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"Since we cannot attain unto it, let us revenge ourselves with railing against it."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on criticism   

"We are suffering from too much sarcasm."

Moore, Marianne on criticism   

"A bad review is even less important than whether it is raining in Patagonia."

Murdoch, Iris on criticism   

"We protest against unjust criticism but we accept unarmed applause."

Narosky, Jose on criticism   

"When the critics come around it's always too late."

Nolan, Sir Sidney on criticism   

"All the world's a stage, and all the clergymen critics."

Nunn, Gregory on criticism   

"No matter how well you perform there's always somebody of intelligent opinion who thinks it's lousy."

Olivier, Sir Lawrence on criticism   

"Prolonged, indiscriminate reviewing of books is a quite exceptionally thankless, irritating and exhausting job. It not only involves praising trash but constantly inventing reactions towards books about which one has no spontaneous feeling whatever."

Orwell, George on criticism   

"The greatest honor that can be paid to the work of art, on its pedestal of ritual display, is to describe it with sensory completeness. We need a science of description. Criticism is ceremonial revivification."

Paglia, Camille on criticism   

"This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force."

Parker, Dorothy on criticism   

"Social criticism begins with grammar and the re-establishing of meanings."

Paz, Octavio on criticism   

"Art is not the application of a canon of beauty but what the instinct and the brain can conceive beyond any canon. When we love a woman we don't start measuring her limbs."

Picasso, Pablo on criticism   

"In criticism I will be bold, and as sternly, absolutely just with friend and foe. From this purpose nothing shall turn me."

Poe, Edgar Allan on criticism