Quotes about criticism

"A critic is a legless man who teaches running."

Pollock, Channing on criticism   

"Each generation produces its squad of moderns with peashooters to attack Gibraltar."

Pollock, Channing on criticism   

"Did some more sober critics come abroad? If wrong, I smil'd; if right, I kiss'd the rod."

Pope, Alexander on criticism   

"They will say you are on the wrong road, if it is your own."

Porchia, Antonio on criticism   

"I consider criticism merely a preliminary excitement, a statement of things a writer has to clear up in his own head sometime or other, probably antecedent to writing; of no value unless it come to fruit in the created work later."

Pound, Ezra on criticism   

"Never criticize a man until you've walked a mile in his moccasins."

Proverb, American Indian on criticism
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"Those who have free seats at a play hiss first."

Proverb, Chinese on criticism
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"Do not use a hatchet to remove a fly from your friend's forehead."

Proverb, Chinese on criticism
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"Even the lion has to defend himself against flies."

Proverb, German on criticism   

"The television critic, whatever his pretensions, does not labor in the same vineyard as those he criticizes; his grapes are all sour."

Raphael, Frederic on criticism   

"Any jackass can kick a barn down, but it takes a carpenter to build it."

Rayburn, Sam on criticism   

"Do what you feel in your heart to be right. You'll be criticized anyway."

Roosevelt, Eleanor on criticism
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"One of the grotesqueries of present-day American life is the amount of reasoning that goes into displaying the wisdom secreted in bad movies while proving that modern art is meaningless. They have put into practice the notion that a bad art work cleverly interpreted according to some obscure Method is more rewarding than a masterpiece wrapped in silence."

Rosenberg, Harold on criticism   

"David Lynch came out of it a genius, and I came out of it a fat girl. I'm sorry that the only comment I get about the part is the way I look. [Commenting on the critics' response to her performance in Blue Velvet]"

Rossellini, Isabella on criticism   

"Take heed of critics even when they are not fair; resist them even when they are."

Rostand, Jean on criticism   

"When a man spends his time giving his wife criticism and advice instead of compliments, he forgets that it was not his good judgment, but his charming manners, that won her heart."

Rowland, Helen on criticism   

"A critic is a reader who ruminates. Thus, he should have more than one stomach."

Schlegel, Friedrich on criticism   

"In my wide association in life, meeting with many and great men in various parts of the world, I have yet to find the man, however great or exalted his station, who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than he would ever do under a spirit of criticism."

Schwab, Charles M. on criticism   

"As much as we thirst for approval we dread condemnation."

Selye, Hans on criticism   

"Give me the critic bred in Nature's school, who neither talks by rote, nor thinks by rule; who feeling's honest dictates still obeys, and dares, without a precedent, to praise."

Shee, Sir Martin Archer on 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."

Shelley, Percy Bysshe on criticism   

"A man generally has the good or ill qualities he attributes to mankind."

Shenstone, William on criticism   

"For if there is anything to one's praise, it is foolish vanity to be gratified at it, and if it is abuse -- why one is always sure to hear of it from one damned good-natured friend or another!"

Sheridan, Richard Brinsley on criticism   

"The dread of criticism is the death of genius."

Simms, William Gilmore on criticism   

"Neither praise or blame is the object of true criticism. Justly to discriminate, firmly to establish, wisely to prescribe, and honestly to award. These are the true aims and duties of criticism."

Simms, William Gilmore on criticism   

"When subjected to the rain of criticism, let?s not curse the rain. Let?s accept it as a part of life. Let?s remember that the more criticism we can successfully handle, the more zest we will experience in our lives."

Sinha, Shall on criticism   

"If I make a move, like raise my eyebrows, some critic says I'm doing Nicholson. What am I supposed to do, cut off my eyebrows?"

Slater, Christian on criticism   

"I never read a book before reviewing it; it prejudices a man so."

Smith, Sydney on criticism   

"Some people are always critical of vague statements. I tend rather to be critical of precise statements; they are the only ones which can correctly be labeled wrong."

Smullyan, Raymond on criticism   

"The aim of all commentary on art now should be to make works of art -- and, by analogy, our own experience -- more, rather than less, real to us. The function of criticism should be to show how it is what it is, even that it is what it is, rather than to show what it means."

Sontag, Susan on criticism   

"In most modern instances, interpretation amounts to the philistine refusal to leave the work of art alone. Real art has the capacity to make us nervous. By reducing the work of art to its content and then interpreting that, one tames the work of art. Interpretation makes art manageable, conformable."

Sontag, Susan on criticism   

"Any critic is entitled to wrong judgments, of course. But certain lapses of judgment indicate the radical failure of an entire sensibility."

Sontag, Susan on criticism   

"Unless a reviewer has the courage to give you unqualified praise, I say ignore the bastard."

Steinbeck, John on criticism   

"Give a critic an inch, he'll write a play."

Steinbeck, John on 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!"

Sterne, Laurence on criticism   

"What we ask of him is, that he should find out for us more than we can find out for ourselves. He must have the passion of a lover."

Symons, Arthur on criticism   

"Abuse if you slight it, will gradually die away; but if you show yourself irritated, you will be thought to have deserved it."

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius on criticism   

"A louse in the locks of literature."

Tennyson, Lord Alfred on criticism   

"No man ever got very high by pulling other people down. The intelligent merchant does not knock his competitors. The sensible worker does not work those who work with him. Don't knock your friends. Don't knock your enemies. Don't knock yourself."

Tennyson, Lord Alfred on criticism   

"I am sorry to think that you do not get a man's most effective criticism until you provoke him. Severe truth is expressed with some bitterness."

Thoreau, Henry David on criticism
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