Self Criticism Quotes - Page 2

• That was one of the big problems in the [Black Panther] Party. Criticism and self-criticism were not encouraged, and the little that was given often wasn’t taken seriously. Constructive criticism and self-criticism are extremely important for any revolutionary organization. Without them, people tend to drown in their mistakes, not learn from them.

  Assata Shakur

  Mistake, Party, Taken

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• There is no more reason to accuse ourselves excessively of our failings than to excuse them overmuch. He who goes overboard in self-criticism often does so in order not to suffer others' criticisms, or else does so out of a kind of vanity that wishes to make others believe that he knows how to confess his faults.

  Madeleine de Souvre, marquise de Sable

  Believe, Vanity, Self

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• Criticism is often not a science; it is a craft, requiring more good health than wit, more hard work than talent, more habit than native genius. In the hands of a man who has read widely but lacks judgment, applied to certain subjects it can corrupt both its readers and the writer himself.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Hard Work, Men, Hands

  "Of Books". "Characters", Book by Jean De La Bruyère, www.ourcivilisation.com. 1688.

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• Self-criticism, cruel, unsparing criticism that goes to the very root of the evil, is life and breath for the proletarian movement.

  Rosa Luxemburg

  Self, Roots, Evil

  Rosa Luxemburg, Peter Hudis, Kevin B. Anderson (2004). “The Rosa Luxemburg Reader”, p.314, NYU Press

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• As there must be moderation in other things, so there must be moderation in self-criticism. Perpetual contemplation of our own actions produces a morbid consciousness, quite unlike that normal consciousness accompanying right actions spontaneously done; and from a state of unstable equilibrium long maintained by effort, there is apt to be a fall towards stable equilibrium, in which the primitive nature reasserts itself. Retrogression rather than progression may hence result.

  Herbert Spencer

  Fall, Self, Long

  "The Principles of Ethics" by Herbert Spencer, (Ch. 10), 1897.

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• If you interrupt the writing of fast narrative with too much introspection and self-criticism, you will be lucky if you write 500 words a day and you will be disgusted with them into the bargain. By following my formula, you write 2,000 words a day and you aren’t disgusted with them until the book is finished, which will be in about six weeks.

  Ian Fleming

  Book, Writing, Self

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• Marxism must abhor nothing so much as the possibility that it becomes congealed in its current form. It is at its best when butting heads in self-criticism, and in historical thunder and lightning, it retains its strength.

  Rosa Luxemburg

  Self, Historical, Criticism

  "Quote Junkie : Political Edition". Book by Hagopian Institute, 2008.

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• It is the West that has liberated women, racial minorities, religious minorities, and gays and lesbians, recognizing and defending their rights. The notions of freedom and human rights were present at the dawn of Western civilization, as ideals at least, but have gradually come to fruition through supreme acts of self-criticism.

  Ibn Warraq

  Religious, Gay, Civilization

  Source: counterjihadreport.com

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• Because of its exceptional capacity for self-criticism, the West took the initiative in abolishing slavery; the calls for abolition did not resonate even in black Africa, where rival African tribes took black prisoners to be sold as slaves in the West.

  Ibn Warraq

  Self, African Tribes, Black

  Source: counterjihadreport.com

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• The great ideas of the West - rationalism, self-criticism, the disinterested search for truth, the separation of church and state, the rule of law, equality before the law, freedom of conscience, thought, and expression, human rights, and liberal democracy- quite an achievement, surely, for any civilization- - remain the best, and perhaps the only, means for all people, no matter of what race or creed, to reach their full potential and live in freedom.

  Ibn Warraq

  Mean, Race, Self

  Ibn Warraq (2010). “Virgins? What Virgins?: And Other Essays”

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• Self-Criticism is the secret weapon of democracy, and candor and confession are good for the political soul.

  Adlai Stevenson I

  Self, Political, Soul

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• As for me, I am unfortunate enough not to posses a happy temperament like Najdorf, who views every happening in a rosy light and avoids any possibility of self-criticism. I am one of those unlucky skeptics who never overlook the dark side of even the happiest experience.

  Savielly Tartakower

  Dark, Light, Self

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• We must admit that today conformity is on the Left. To be sure, the Right is not brilliant. But the Left is in complete decadence, a prisoner of words, caught in its own vocabulary, capable merely of stereotyped replies, constantly at a loss when faced with truth, from which it nevertheless claimed to derive its laws. The Left is schizophrenic and needs doctoring through pitiless self-criticism, exercise of the heart, close reasoning, and a little modesty.

  Albert Camus

  Heart, Loss, Exercise

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• Accounting for the most part, remains a legalistic and traditional practice, almost immune to self-criticism by scientific methods.

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Self, Practice, Criticism

  "Philosophical Perspectives on Accounting: Essays in Honour of Edward Stamp". Book by Edward Stamp and Michael J. Mumford, p. 147, 1993.

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• It is this capacity for relentless self-criticism that should be - everywhere - the true measure of intellectual freedom and cosmopolitanism, not the entrenched cultural power and self-congratulatory moral rhetoric of some people in countries long accustomed to telling other societies what to do and how to behave.

  Pankaj Mishra

  Country, Self, Long

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• Obviously there will be a backlash. If you believe the hype you have to believe a backlash too. Any criticism we get, is always stuff we've already criticized ourselves.

  Jonny Greenwood

  Believe, Hype, Criticism

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• I always write a draft version of the novel in which I try to develop, not the story, not the plot, but the possibilities of the plot. I write without thinking much, trying to overcome all kinds of self-criticism, without stopping, without giving any consideration to the style or structure of the novel, only putting down on paper everything that can be used as raw material, very crude material for later development in the story.

  Mario Vargas Llosa

  Writing, Thinking, Self

  Mario Vargas Llosa (2013). “A Writer's Reality”, p.48, Faber & Faber

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• All I'm arguing for really is that we should have a conversation where the best ideas really thrive, where there's no taboo against criticizing bad ideas, and where everyone who shows up, in order to get their ideas entertained, has to meet some obvious burdens of intellectual rigor and self-criticism and honesty-and when people fail to do that, we are free to stop listening to them. What religion has had up until this moment is a different set of rules that apply only to it, which is you have to respect my religious certainty even though I'm telling you I arrived at it irrationally.

  Sam Harris

  Religious, Honesty, Self

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• While the censorious man is most severe in judging others, he is invariably the most ready to repel any animadversions made upon himself...

  Elias Lyman Magoon

  Men, Judging, Criticism

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers" by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, (p. 357), 1895.

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• He cannot be strict in judging, who does not wish others to be strict judges of himself.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Judging, Criticism, Wish

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• The question is, do we have a shadow government? And, if we do, who are those intelligent minority that is -- that is guiding us through? And where are they guiding us to? If you skip past all of the puppets and the strings, if you stop looking at the puppets themselves, you have to see who's behind the puppets. Who is choosing the puppets and the players? Who's the puppet master? George Soros.

  Glenn Beck

  Intelligent, Past, Player

  "Soros: Rupert Murdoch and Fox are Like Nazis, Tea Partiers are Being Deceived and Misled". Interview with Noel Sheppard, www.newsbusters.org. February 20, 2011.

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• A self-awareness moment. All of a sudden everything he has done comes flashing into his mind, a self-criticism that is unbearable.

  Philip Seymour Hoffman

  Self, Mind, Criticism

  "'Capote' star Hoffman already an Oscar favorite", www.today.com. September 12, 2005.

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• Human intellect is natures attempt at self criticism

  Muhammad Iqbal

  Self, Criticism, Intellect

  Sir Muhammad Iqbal, Jāvīd Iqbāl (2006). “Stray Reflections: The Private Notebook of Muhammad Iqbal”

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• Self-criticism sessions were held, but these produced more criticism than could usefully be absorbed or accomodated.

  Donald Barthelme

  Self, Criticism, Session

  Donald Barthelme (1982). “Sixty stories”, Plume

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• Rule of criticism: only attend to the shape, and the purpose will manifest itself.

  Mason Cooley

  Criticism, Purpose, Shapes

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