Censure Quotes - Page 4

• If an author be supposed to involve his thoughts in voluntary obscurity, and to obstruct, by unnecessary difficulties, a mind eager in the pursuit of truth; if he writes not to make others learned, but to boast the learning which he possesses himself, and wishes to be admired rather than understood, he counteracts the first end of writing, and justly suffers the utmost severity of censure, or the more afflicting severity of neglect.

  Samuel Johnson

  Writing, Mind, Suffering

  Samuel Johnson, Elizabeth Carter, Samuel Richardson, Catherine Talbot (1825). “The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752”

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Never be afraid of the world's censure; it's praise is much more to be dreaded.

  Charles Spurgeon

  World, Praise

  Spurgeon, Charles (2015). “The Complete Works of C. H. Spurgeon, Volume 28: Sermons 1637-1697”, p.238, Delmarva Publications, Inc.

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• Censure and criticism never hurt anybody. If false, they can't hurt you unless you are wanting in manly character; and if true, they show a man his weak points, and forewarn him against failure and trouble.

  William E. Gladstone

  Hurt, Character, Men

  18 Copy quote

• Man is not permitted without censure to follow his own thoughts in the search of truth, when they lead him ever so little out of the common road.

  John Locke

  Men, Littles, Common

  John Locke (1825). “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding: An analysis of Mr. Locke's Doctrine of ideas .... A defense of Mr. Locke's Opinion concerning personal identity .... A treatise on the conduct of the understanding. Some thoughts concerning reading and study for a gentleman. Elements of natural philosophy. A new method of a common place book. Extracted from the author's works. With a life of the author”, p.33

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Horace appears in good humor while he censures, and therefore his censure has the more weight, as supposed to proceed from judgment and not from passion.

  Edward Young

  Passion, Weight, Judgment

  5 Copy quote

• The founding fathers gave the House of Representatives one function when it comes to cleansing the office of the presidency and that is impeachment, .. Whether or not a resolution of censure is appropriate is something beyond our constitutional authority.

  Henry Hyde

  Father, Office, House

  7 Copy quote

• All our distinctions ire accidental; beauty and deformity, though personal qualities, are neither entitled to praise nor censure; yet it so happens that they color our opinion of those qualities to which mankind have attached responsibility.

  Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann

  Responsibility, Color, Personal Qualities

  4 Copy quote

• Praise from a friend, or censure from a foe, Are lost on hearers that our merits know.

  Alexander Pope

  Friendship, Merit, Praise

  Homerus, Alexander Pope (1718). “The Iliad of Homer”

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• As my object was not myself, I set out with the determination, and happily with the disposition, of not being moved by praise or censure, friendship or calumny, nor of being drawn from my purpose by any personal altercation; and the man who cannot do this, is not fit for a public character.

  Thomas Paine

  Determination, Character, Men

  Thomas Paine (2016). “THE RIGHTS OF MAN: The French Revolution – Ideals, Arguments & Motives (Political Classic): Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution”, p.214, e-artnow

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• [T]he 47th proposition in Euclid might now be voted down with as much ease as any proposition in politics; and therefore if Lord Hawkesbury hates the abstract truths of science as much as he hates concrete truth in human affairs, now is his time for getting rid of the multiplication table, and passing a vote of censure upon the pretensions of the hypotenuse.

  Sydney Smith

  Hate, Science, Ease

  SYDNEY SMITH (1839). “The Works”, p.374

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The censure of a dog is something no man can stand.

  Christopher Morley

  Dog, Men, Puppy

  Christopher Morley (2013). “The Haunted Bookshop”, p.137, Melville House

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• What is a miracle?--'Tis a reproach, 'Tis an implicit satire on mankind; And while it satisfies, it censures too.

  Edward Young

  Miracle, Satire, Mankind

  Edward Young (1839). “Night thoughts on life, death, and immortality. [Followed by] A paraphrase on part of the book of Job”, p.228

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• If we regulate our conduct according to our own convictions, we may safely disregard the praise or censure of others.

  Blaise Pascal

  May, Praise, Conviction

  9 Copy quote

• Ten censure wrong for one who writes amiss.

  Alexander Pope

  Writing, Criticism, Ten

  Alexander Pope (1853). “The poetical works of Alexander Pope”

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Glory relaxes often and debilitates the mind; censure stimulates and contracts,--both to an extreme. Simple fame is, perhaps, the proper medium.

  William Shenstone

  Simple, Mind, Relax

  William Shenstone, Samuel Johnson, Robert Dodsley (1807). “Essays on men and manners; with aphorisms, criticisms, impromptus, fragments, etc”, p.157

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Censure pardons the ravens but rebukes the doves. [The innocent are punished and the wicked escape.]

  Juvenal

  Ravens, Wicked, Innocent

  4 Copy quote

• Everything here below beneath the sun is subject to continual change; and perhaps there is nothing which can be called more inconstant than opinion, which turns round in an everlasting circle like the wheel of fortune. He who reaps praise today is overwhelmed with biting censure tomorrow; today we trample under foot the man who tomorrow will be raised far above us.

  E. T. A. Hoffmann

  Men, Circles, Feet

  E. T. A. Hoffmann (2012). “The Best Tales of Hoffmann”, p.365, Courier Corporation

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Every man's censure is first moulded in his own nature.

  George Herbert

  Men, Firsts, Every Man

  George Herbert, Christopher Harvey, George Gilfillan (1857). “The poetical works of George Herbert”, p.328

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Beware Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in, Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee. Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice; Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy; For the apparel oft proclaims the man.

  William Shakespeare

  Men, Voice, Giving

  'Hamlet' (1601) act 1, sc. 3, l. 58

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Religion does not censure or exclude
  Unnumbered pleasures, harmlessly pursued.

  William Cowper

  Religion, Doe, Pleasure

  William Cowper (1866). “Poems”, p.164

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Affectation proceeds from one of these two causes,--vanity or hypocrisy; for as vanity puts us on affecting false characters, in order to purchase applause; so hypocrisy sets us on an endeavor to avoid censure, by concealing our vices under an appearance of their opposite virtues.

  Henry Fielding

  Character, Vanity, Order

  Henry Fielding (2013). “Joseph Andrews and Shamela”, p.61, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• As the malicious disposition of mankind is too well known, and the cruel pleasure which they take in destroying the reputation of others, the use we are to make of this knowledge is, to afford no handle for reproach; for bad as the world is, it seldom falls on anyone who hath not given some slight cause for censure.

  Henry Fielding

  Fall, Use, World

  Henry Fielding (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry Fielding (Illustrated)”, p.1527, Delphi Classics

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• We should not be too hasty in bestowing either our praise or censure on mankind, since we shall often find such a mixture of good and evil in the same character, that it may require a very accurate judgment and a very elaborate inquiry to determine on which side the balance turns.

  Henry Fielding

  Character, Evil, Balance

  Henry Fielding, Thomas Roscoe (1853). “The Works of Henry Fielding, Complete in One Volume”, p.540

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• The villain's censure is extorted praise.

  Alexander Pope

  Villain, Praise

  Alexander Pope (1847). “The works of Alexander Pope, with notes and illustrations, by himself and others. To which are added, a new life of the author [&c.] by W. Roscoe”, p.302

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• A man must serve his time to every trade, Save censure-critics all are ready made. Take hackney'd jokes from Miller, got by rote With just enough learning to misquote.

  Lord Byron

  Men, Hackney, Enough

  'English Bards and Scotch Reviewers' (1809) l. 63

  6 Copy quote

  Show source