CRITICISM QUOTES II

quotations about criticism

The finer house you build the sharper will be the criticism.

LEWIS F. KORNS

Thoughts


A young critic is like a boy with a gun; he fires at every living thing he sees. He thinks only of his own skill, not of the pain he is giving.

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

Table-Talk


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

JEAN ROSTAND

"A Biologist's Thoughts,", The Substance of Man


They have a right to censure, that have a heart to help.

WILLIAM PENN

Some Fruits of Solitude


Thoughtful criticism and close scrutiny of all government officials by the press and the public are an important part of our democratic society.

JIMMY CARTER

Farewell Address, Jan. 14, 1981


When virtues are pointed out first, flaws seem less insurmountable.

JUDITH MARTIN

Common Courtesy


The legitimate aim of criticism is to direct attention to the excellent. The bad will dig its own grave.

CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE

Intuitions and Summaries of Thought


To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.

ARISTOTLE

attributed, The Writer's Workout


Critics? Don't talk to me of critics! You think some jackanapes journalist, his soul eaten away by the maggots of jealousy and failure, has anything worthwhile to say of art? I don't.

JONATHAN RABAN

attributed, Looking Together: Writers on Art


Many critics are like woodpeckers, who, instead of enjoying the fruit and shadow of a tree, hop incessantly around the trunk, pecking holes in the bark to discover some little worm or other.

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

Table-Talk


I find the pain of a little censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of much praise.

THOMAS JEFFERSON

letter to Francis Hopkinson, Mar. 13, 1789


Probably you have noted the resemblance of the critic to the crank.

EDGAR WATSON HOWE

Country Town Sayings


If you absolutely can't tolerate critics, then don't do anything new or interesting.

JEFF BEZOS

bOinGbOinG, June 1, 2016

Tags: Jeff Bezos


Criticism is a life without risk.

JOHN LAHR

Light Fantastic


A critic is like an idler amusing himself with a spy-glass; he looks at the defects of a work through the end that magnifies, then inverts the instrument to discover the virtues.

E.P. DAY

Day's Collacon


It is quite cruel that a poet cannot wander through his regions of enchantment without having a critic forever, like the Old Man of the Sea, upon his back.

THOMAS MOORE

Lalla Rookh


What he, the writer, is asking is impossible. Why should he expect this extraordinary being, the perfect critic (who does occasionally exist), why should there be anyone else who comprehends what he is trying to do? Aftar all, there is only one person spinning that particular cocoon, only one person whose business it is to spin it.

DORIS LESSING

Partisan Review, 1973


Criticism very often consists of measuring the learning and the wisdom of others, either by our own ignorance, or by our little technical and pedantic partialities and prejudices.... A book thus unfairly treated, may be compared to the laurel, of which there is honor in the leaves, but poison in the extract.

HORACE SMITH

The Tin Trumpet


An author, whether good or bad, or between both, is an animal whom every body is privileged to attack: for though all are not able to write books, all conceive themselves able to judge them.

MATTHEW GREGORY LEWIS

The Monk


From the writer’s point of view, critics should be ignored, although it’s hard not to do what they suggest. I think it’s unfortunate to have critics for friends. Suppose you write something that stinks, what are they going to say in a review? Say it stinks? So if they’re honest, they do, and if you were friends you’re still friends, but the knowledge of your lousy writing and their articulate admission of it will be always something between the two of you, like the knowledge between a man and his wife of some shady adultery.

WILLIAM STYRON

The Paris Review, spring 1954