Criticism Quotes - Page 32

• It is folly to censure him whom all the world adores.

  Publilius Syrus

  World, Adore, Folly

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• If the men of wit and genius would resolve never to complain in their works of critics and detractors, the next age would not know that they ever had any.

  Jonathan Swift

  Men, Age, Complaining

  Jonathan Swift (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Jonathan Swift (Illustrated)”, p.899, Delphi Classics

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• A critic has no right to the narrowness which is the frequent prerogative of the creative artist.

  E. M. Forster

  Artist, Creative, Critics

  E. M. Forster (2010). “Aspects of the Novel”, p.19, RosettaBooks

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• Every nation, every race, has not only its own creative, but its own critical turn of mind; and is even more oblivious of the shortcomings and limitations of its critical habits than of those of its creative genius.

  T. S. Eliot

  Race, Creative, Mind

  T.S. Eliot (2010). “The Waste Land and Other Poems”, p.84, Broadview Press

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• With an artist no sane man quarrels, any more than with the colour of a child's eyes.

  George Santayana

  Children, Eye, Artist

  George Santayana, Martin A. Coleman (2009). “The Essential Santayana: Selected Writings”, p.312, Indiana University Press

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• Works of art are of an infinite loneliness and with nothing so little to be reached as with criticism.

  Rainer Maria Rilke

  Art, Loneliness, Littles

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• He who first praises a book becomingly is next in merit to the author.

  Walter Savage Landor

  Book, Next, Firsts

  Walter Savage Landor (1824). “Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen”

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• Why would a lazy guy become a parent of five? Then again, why would creative people who inherently don't like change and criticism become writers, actors, or comedians? There's something about this process. I joke about it: My kids have made me a better person, and I only need, like, 34 more of them to be a really good guy.

  Jim Gaffigan

  Kids, People, Creative

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• A good critic is the sorcerer who makes some hidden spring gush forth unexpectedly under our feet.

  Francois Mauriac

  Spring, Feet, Critics

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• Men are ready to suffer anything from others or from heaven itself, provided that, when it comes to words, they are untouched.

  Giacomo Leopardi

  Men, Heaven, Suffering

  Giacomo Leopardi (1987). “Leopardi: Poems and Prose”, Praeger Pub Text

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• The critic who justly admires all kinds of things simultaneously cannot love any one of them.

  Max Beerbohm

  Kind, Admire, Critics

  Sir Max Beerbohm (1958). “Mainly on the Air”

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• In a culture whose already classical dilemma is the hypertrophy of the intellect at the expense of energy and sensual capability, interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art.

  Susan Sontag

  Art, Revenge, Sensual

  Susan Sontag (2014). “A Susan Sontag Reader”, p.149, Macmillan

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• Interpretation, based on the highly dubious theory that a work of art is composed of items of content, violates art. It makes art into an article for use, for arrangement into a mental scheme of categories.

  Susan Sontag

  Art, Dubious, Use

  Susan Sontag (1983). “A Susan Sontag reader”, Vintage

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• A critic is a lug-worm in the liver of literature.

  Lawrence Durrell

  Literature, Worms, Critics

  Lawrence Durrell (2015). “The Avignon Quintet: Monsieur, Livia, Constance, Sebastian and Quinx”, p.193, Faber & Faber

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• When a man says he sees nothing in a book, he very often means that he does not see himself in it: which, if it is not a comedy or a satire, is likely enough.

  Augustus William Hare

  Book, Mean, Men

  Augustus William Hare (1827). “Guesses at Truth”, p.271

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• To the reactionary ear every whispered criticism of the elite classes has always sounded like the opening shot of an uprising.

  Richard Hofstadter

  Class, Uprising, Ears

  RICHARD HOFSTADTER (1962). “The American Political Tradition And the Men Who Made It”

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• One of life's fundamental truths states, "Ask and you shall receive." As kids we get used to asking for things, but somehow we lose this ability in adulthood. We come up with all sorts of excuses and reasons to avoid any possibility of criticism or rejection.

  Jack Canfield

  Inspirational, Kids, Rejection

  "'How Am I Doing?' The One Question That Can Change All Of Your Relationships" by Jack Canfield, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 8, 2009.

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• Since separation precludes financial support or special privilege from government, the churches are free to engage in prophetic criticism of the government and to work for social justice.

  John M Swomley

  Government, Justice, Support

  John M. Swomley (1987). “Religious liberty and the secular state: the constitutional context”

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• The curious hocus-pocus of criticism I can't take seriously. It consists in squirreling up some odd phrases and then waiting for a book to come running by.

  John Steinbeck

  Running, Book, Writing

  John Steinbeck (1995). “The Long Valley”, p.7, Penguin

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• This is all you have to do. Sit down once a day to the novel and start working without internal criticism, without debilitating expectations, without the need to look at your words as if they were already printed and bound. The beginning is only a draft. Drafts are imperfect by definition.

  Walter Mosley

  Writing, Expectations, Needs

  Walter Mosley (2009). “This Year You Write Your Novel”, p.31, Hachette UK

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• Euphemisms are not, as many young people think, useless verbiage for that which can and should be said bluntly; they are like secret agents on a delicate mission, they must airily pass by a stinking mess with barely so much as a nod of the head, make their point of constructive criticism and continue on in calm forbearance. Euphemisms are unpleasant truths wearing diplomatic cologne.

  Quentin Crisp

  Thinking, People, Secret

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• Poetry criticism at its worst today is mean in spirit and spiteful in intent, as if determined to inflict the wound that will spur the artist to new heights if it does not cripple him or her.

  David Lehman

  Mean, Artist, Spurs

  David Lehman (2015). “The State of the Art: A Chronicle of American Poetry, 1988-2014”, p.162, University of Pittsburgh Press

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• My mom is an actress, but she never really pushed me into it, and it was never something I thought I would be doing. She was very happy I decided to, but she certainly doesn't offer me criticism because she knows I'd tell her to shut up! Nobody wants to hear that from their mum!

  Morena Baccarin

  Mom, Would Be, Want

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• For some reason if we hear 100 praises and one criticism, we focus on that one hurtful thing.

  Carmen Electra

  Focus, Hurtful, Praise

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• If someone's criticism is completely unfounded on data, then I don't want to hear it. It doesn't hold up to scrutiny.

  Tim Ferriss

  Data, Want, Scrutiny

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