Criticism Quotes - Page 13

• Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain - and most fools do. But it takes character and self control to be understanding and forgiving.

  Dale Carnegie

  Gratitude, Character, Self

  Dale Carnegie (2016). “How to win friends & influence people”, p.21, Diamond Pocket Books Pvt Ltd

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• The true critic is he who bears within himself the dreams and ideas and feelings of myriad generations, and to whom no form of thought is alien, no emotional impulse obscure.

  Oscar Wilde

  Dream, Emotional, Ideas

  Oscar Wilde, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays”, p.690, GENERAL PRESS

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• It is very perplexing how an intrepid frontier people, who fought a wilderness, floods, tornadoes, and the Rockies, cower before criticism, which is regarded as a malignant tumor in the imagination.

  Edward Dahlberg

  People, Imagination, Tornadoes

  Edward Dahlberg (1967). “Alms for Oblivion”, U of Minnesota Press

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• Post-modernism has cut off the present from all futures. The daily media add to this by cutting off the past. Which means that critical opinion is often orphaned in the present.

  John Berger

  Mean, Cutting, Past

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• Of course you're always at liberty to judge the critic. Judge people as critics, however, and you'll condemn them all!

  Henry James

  People, Judging, Liberty

  Henry James (2015). “The Portrait of a Lady”, p.255, Xist Publishing

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• I have never believed that the critic is the rival of the poet, but I do believe that criticism is a genre of literature or it does not exist.

  Harold Bloom

  Believe, Doe, Literature

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• Whatever you do, you need courage.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Courage, Decide Upon, Needs

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• If a child lives with approval, he learns to live with himself.

  Dorothy Nolte

  Life, Children, Learning

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• Blame where you must, be candid where you can, And be each critic the Good-natured Man.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Men, Blame, Candid

  Oliver Goldsmith (1825). “The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith: Miscellaneous poems. The good-natured man. She stoops to conquer; or, the Mistakes of a night. An oratorio. Prefaces. [Criticisms”, p.218

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• Professional critics are incapable of distinguishing and appreciating either diamonds in the rough or gold in bars. They are traders, and in literature know only the coins that are current. Their critical lab has scales and weights, but neither crucible or touchstone.

  Joseph Joubert

  Appreciate, Crucible, Gold

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• It is much more valuable to look for the strength in others. You can gain nothing by criticizing their imperfections.

  Daisaku Ikeda

  Imperfection, Looks, Gains

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• To be just, that is to say, to justify its existence, criticism should be partial, passionate and political, that is to say, written from an exclusive point of view, but a point of view that opens up the widest horizons.

  Charles Baudelaire

  Views, Political, Horizon

  Charles Baudelaire, Jonathan Mayne (1981). “Art in Paris 1845-1862: salons and other exhibitions”

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• The better a work is, the more it attracts criticism; it is like the fleas who rush to jump on white linens.

  Gustave Flaubert

  White, Fleas, Linen

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• Nothing that goes on in anyone else's mind can harm you.

  Marcus Aurelius

  Mind, Goes On, Harm

  Marcus Aurelius (2002). “Meditations: A New Translation”, p.46, Modern Library

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• 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.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Thinking, Quality

  H. L. Mencken (2009). “Prejudices: Third Series”, p.87, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Don't be afraid of opposition. Remember, a kite rises against, not with, the wind.

  Hamilton Wright Mabie

  Funny, Humor, Wind

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• Encourage me, and I will not forget you.

  William Arthur Ward

  Relationship, Encouragement, Forgive And Forget

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• We're not trying to entertain the critics ... I'll take my chances with the public.

  Walt Disney

  Determination, Trying, Enough Chances

  "Disneyland, 1955: Just Take the Santa Ana Freeway to the American Dream". American Art, 1991.

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• If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Printed Books, Printed Word, Offending

  Benjamin Franklin (1945). “Autobiographical writings”

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• Criticism polishes my mirror.

  Rumi

  Mirrors, Polish

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• You may abuse a tragedy, though you cannot write one. You may scold a carpenter who has made you a bad table, though you cannot make a table. It is not your trade to make tables.

  Samuel Johnson

  Writing, Abuse, Tragedy

  On literary criticism, in James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' (1791) vol. 1, p. 409 (25 June 1763)

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• It's better to say, 'I'm suffering,' than to say, 'This landscape is ugly.

  W. H. Auden

  Suffering, Ugly, Landscape

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• Criticism is like champagne, nothing more execrable if bad, nothing more excellent if good; if meagre, muddy, vapid and sour, both are fit only to engender colic and wind; but if rich, generous and sparkling, they communicate a genial glow to the spirits, improve the taste, and expand the heart.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Heart, Wind, Vapid

  Charles Caleb Colton (1866). “Lacon: or, Many things in few words”, p.55

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• Slander is worse than cannibalism.

  Saint John Chrysostom

  Cannibalism, Slander

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

  Thomas Jefferson

  Pain, Emotional, Littles

  Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.109, Rowman & Littlefield

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