Criticism Quotes - Page 2

Who is the wrong person to criticise?You

And when you are criticized, as you will be, remind your critics that you have the right to speak your mind. And if they shout you down, as they probably will, then inform them that since they insist on being asses, you will henceforth communicate with them with the appropriate part of your own anatomy. And turning to face them from the posterior, let them know where you stand. Let every fart count as a peal of thunder for liberty. Let every fart remind the nation of how much it has let pass out of its control. It is a small gesture, but one that can be very effective - especially in a large crowd. So fart, and if you must, fart often. But always fart without apology. Fart for freedom, fart for liberty - and fart proudly

Carl Japikse

A leader is always first in line during times of criticism and last in line during times of recognition.

Orrin Woodward

Because his [Damien Hirst] art is idea art - art drawn on the back of cigarette packets and beer mats, roughed out in airport departure lounges and the back of the taxis, usually delegated to and carried by others - this leaves Damien a lot of time for what might loosely be called socializing. Hanging around.

Gordon Burn

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

John Dryden

It is peculiar to “ressentiment criticism” that it does not seriously desire that its demands be fulfilled. It does not want to cure the evil. The evil is merely the pretext for the criticism.

Max Scheler

When you lay down a proposition which is forthwith controverted, it is of course optional with you to take up the cudgels in its defence. If you are deeply convinced of its truth, you will perhaps be content to leave it to take care of itself; or, at all events, you will not go out of your way to push its fortunes; for you will reflect that in the long run an opinion often borrows credit from the forbearance of its patrons. In the long run, we say; it will meanwhile cost you an occasional pang to see your cherished theory turned into a football by the critics. A football is not, as such, a very respectable object, and the more numerous the players, the more ridiculous it becomes. Unless, therefore, you are very confident of your ability to rescue it from the chaos of kicks, you will best consult its interests by not mingling in the game.

Henry James

There is probably no hell for authors in the next world--they suffer so much from critics and publishers in this one.

Christian Nestell Bovee

To call you my critic is to call you my friend.

Karen E. Quinones Miller

This philistinism of interpretation is more rife in literature than in any other art. For decades now, literary critics have understood it to be their task to translate the elements of the poem or play or novel or story into something else. Sometimes a writer will be so uneasy before the naked power of his art that he will install within the work itself - albeit with a little shyness, a touch of the good taste of irony - the clear and explicit interpretation of it. Thomas Mann is an example of such an overcooperative author. In the case of more stubborn authors, the critic is only too happy to perform the job.

Susan Sontag

#1. Spend more time considering evidences of grace in other Christians than you do pondering their sins and weaknesses. You, as a Christian, probably have a much greater ability to see weakness in other believers than to see strength. It is as if you use a magnifying glass when looking for weakness and a telescope when looking for grace. Brooks warns, "Sin is darkness, grace is light; sin is hell, grace is heaven; and what madness is it to look more at darkness than at light, more at hell than at heaven." Indeed.

Thomas Brooks

I define influence simply as literary love, tempered by defense. The defenses vary from poet to poet. But the overwhelming presence of love is vital to understanding how great literature works.

Harold Bloom

As long as all that is said is said against me, I feel a certain sublime assurance of success, but as soon as honied words of praise are spoken for me, I feel as one that lies unprotected before his enemies.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

What someone else thinks of you is not what you have to think of yourself.

Bianca Frazier

I've always looked on criticism as a sort of envious tribute.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Chances are like criticism; few like to take it, some love to give it, yet most never see it.

Carl Henegan

A cowardly critique starts with a compliment.

Mokokoma Mokhonoana

To maintain our own economy,we are disturbing the nature's economy

Siddharth Seksaria

Some criticism, no doubt, is constructive, but too much is a subtle poison.

Arthur Gordon

Dear lady, ... dear gentleman, reader, [it's] not right ... to put down this writer on his writing ... And I'll tell you why, too: it hurts, that's why.... People try to understand why writers commit suicide by jumping off boats or by alcoholism or by being heroic continuously or by rope or gun or drug or knife or water, and ... I can tell you straight out, ... it is reading slurring remarks about their writing that drives writers to the grave. Dirty remarks passed by ... dirty but damned nicely educated and very highly-paid ladies and gentlemen have the effect of killing writers. Yes, that's right. Dirty words ... in slick paper magazines read by smart people do assassinate writers. ... And boy let me tell you I am all for it, even when by some ... misunderstanding the dirty words are directed to me rather than to the party really deserving them. Accidents happen, dear clever reviewer or critic, and let it not be said that William Saroyan is one not to see a situation from the point of view of the other party, ... and I shall be the first to defend your right to be critical and even sarcastic, knowing full well that it is not about me and my writing, although my name is by mistake taken in vain by you. ... But go on, go on, do your good clever writing, every one of you, I am home, your are home, and we are each of us not yet on Variety's Necrology list, so if we can't take it, who can?

William Saroyan

I will only start taking book reviews seriously from the day that books are able to review readers.

Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Excuses, criticisms, and superstitions are vitamins for haters, but poison for the successful. Rise above!

Steve Maraboli

Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man's growth without destroying his roots.

Frank A. Clark

I have yet to find the man, however exalted his station, who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than under a spirit of criticism.

Charles Schwab

In the beginning God created man in His own image, and man has been trying to repay the favor ever since.

Voltaire

(Feedback) People become addicted to it. That’s why journalism is so popular, because you want to hear, every day, what people think of what you just wrote. I think a little patience on that front can be good, too.

Zadie Smith

You do not have to do anything to defend yourself in life; just BE beautiful, and life will defend you.

Bryant McGill

I have often misunderstood men grossly, and I have misrepresented them when I understood them, sacrificing sense to make a phrase. Here, of course, is where even the most conscientious critic often goes aground; he is apt to be an artist before he is a scientist, and the impulse to create something passionately is stronger in him than the impulse to state something accurately.

H.L. Mencken

The pleasure of criticism takes away from us the pleasure of being deeply moved by very fine things.

Jean de La Bruyère

I want to say to the literature teacher who remains wilfully, even boastfully ignorant of a major element of contemporary fiction: you are incompetent to teach or judge your subject. Readers and students who do know the field, meanwhile, have every right to challenge your ignorant prejudice. Rise, undergraduates of the English departments! You have nothing to lose but your A on the midterm!

Ursula K Le Guin

Criticism at its best is re-creative, not spirit-killing.

Camille Paglia

Nine times out of 10, criticism is a defense mechanism. We criticize in others what we don't like in ourselves.

Mark Batterson

I would advise anyone who aspires to a writing career that before developing his talent he would be wise to develop a thick

Harper Lee

The best criticism, and it is uncommon, is of this sort that dissolves considerations of content into those of form.

Susan Sontag

Some judge of authors' names, not works, and then nor praise nor blame the writings, but the men.

Alexander Pope

When you receive criticism from well-meaning people, it pays to ask, ‘Are they right?’ And if they are, you need to adapt what they’re doing. If they’re not right, if you really have conviction that they’re not right, you need to have that long-term willingness to be misunderstood. It’s a key part of invention.

Jeff Bezos

And, instead of pelting these babbling idiots with their own freshly toasted marshmallows, everyone else sitting around the fire is often nodding and smiling and looking solemny thoughtful.

Stephen King

He liked to think of himself as a merciless vivisector probing into the palpitating entrails of his own soul.

Aldous Huxley

Not everybody that says that you suck is a hater. There are people who suck.

Mokokoma Mokhonoana

A man’s mind is hidden in his writings: criticism brings it to light.

Solomon ibn Gabirol

Procrastination threatens critics’ livelihood.

Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Cookbooks, it should be stressed, do not belong in the kitchen at all. We keep them there for the sake of appearances; occasionally, we smear their pages together with vibrant green glazes or crimson compotes, in order to delude ourselves, and any passing browsers, that we are practicing cooks; but in all honesty, a cookbook is something you read in the living room, or in the bathroom, or in bed.

Anthony Lane

Matthew Arnold was a fastidious social critic and hence an accomplished complainer. When he died, an acquaintance said: "Poor Matt, he's going to Heaven, no doubt – but he won't like God.

George F. Will

If philosophy has to serve some really noble purpose, it must be more observant than critical towards life.

Raheel Farooq

There is something essentially ridiculous about critics, anyway: what is good is good without our saying so, and beneath all our majesty we know this.

Randall Jarrell

Critiquing a doer isn’t doing.

Mokokoma Mokhonoana

What deserves my loyalty, art or prestige?

Anis Shivani

Successful entrepreneurs figure out when to drive their ideas forward & when to listen to constructive criticism.

Ziad K. Abdelnour

Magicians made magic but critics made it tricks.

Amit Kalantri

Most people say that Shakespeare rocked merely because most people say that Shakespeare rocked.

Mokokoma Mokhonoana

An insincere critic of a sincere person never wins.

Criss Jami

The man who cannot listen to an argument which opposes his views either has a weak position or is a weak defender of it. No opinion that cannot stand discussion or criticism is worth holding. And it has been wisely said that the man who knows only half of any question is worse off than the man who knows nothing of it. He is not only one sided, but his partisanship soon turns him into an intolerant and a fanatic. In general it is true that nothing which cannot stand up under discussion and criticism is worth defending.

James E. Talmage

When you say, ‘Women are untrustworthy bitches. They lie and cheat and will nail anything that moves.’ Do you know what I hear from your lips? Listen now, for I shall tell you. I hear you speak these words: 'I am an untrustworthy bastard. I lie and cheat and nail anything that moves.' André Chevalier

Nikki Sex

Often the crowd does not recognize a leader until he has gone, and then they build a monument for him with the stones they threw at him in life.

J. Oswald Sanders

I only accept and pay attention to feedback from people who are also in the arena. If you're occasionally getting your butt kicked as you respond, and if you're also figuring out how to stay open to feedback without getting pummeled by insults, I'm more likely to pay attention to your thought about my work. If, on the other hand, you're not helping, contributing, or wrestling with your own gremlins, I'm not at all interested in your commentary.

Brené Brown

But 'I worked hard on this' doesn’t exempt you from criticism. Those harsh reviews aren’t about anyone being out to get me. It’s not an Authors vs. Reviewers thing. It’s people taking the time to express their opinions because they care about this s

Jim C. Hines

Only a few short years ago, the average stay-at-home mom spent her relaxation time reading Jackie Collins and staring at the pool boy. Now, half of them are outselling Jackie Collins writing porn about the pool boy.The other half are writing reviews of

Pete Morin

Remember, we all make our work available in a commercial transaction, the terms of which we, ourselves, dictate. If we give it away for free, that’s our decision, and there is no refuge in the lame defense, “what do you want for nothing?” The buyer does not waive his right to express his opi

Pete Morin

...if anyone who speaks up to criticise something obviously evil is punished merely for speaking, civilisation will be in a bad way.

Ann Leckie

Wealthy people attract critics like wealthy ships attract pirates.

Orrin Woodward

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Criticism Quotes - Page 2

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