CRITICISM QUOTES II

quotations about criticism

Probably you have noted the resemblance of the critic to the crank.

EDGAR WATSON HOWE

Country Town Sayings


When virtues are pointed out first, flaws seem less insurmountable.

JUDITH MARTIN

Common Courtesy


If you absolutely can't tolerate critics, then don't do anything new or interesting.

JEFF BEZOS

bOinGbOinG, June 1, 2016

Tags: Jeff Bezos


Having the critics praise you is like having the hangman say you’ve got a pretty neck.

ELI WALLACH

attributed, The Book of Classic Insults


When a critic sets himself up as an arbiter of morality, a judge of the matter and not the manner of a work, he is no longer a critic; he is a censor.

EDWARD ALBEE

preface, The American Dream


To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.

ARISTOTLE

attributed, The Writer's Workout


Time is the only critic.

JAMES M. CAIN

The Paris Review, spring-summer 1978


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

JEAN DE LA BRUYERE

Characters


The finer house you build the sharper will be the criticism.

LEWIS F. KORNS

Thoughts


Take heed of critics even when they are not fair; resist them even when they are.

JEAN ROSTAND

"A Biologist's Thoughts,", The Substance of Man


It is quite cruel that a poet cannot wander through his regions of enchantment without having a critic forever, like the Old Man of the Sea, upon his back.

THOMAS MOORE

Lalla Rookh


Some kinds of criticism are as much too insipid as others are too pragmatical. It is not easy to combine point with solidity, spirit with moderation and candour. Many persons see nothing but beauties in a work, others nothing but defects. Those cloy you with sweets, and are 'the very milk of human kindness,' flowing on in a stream of luscious panegyrics; these take delight in poisoning the sources of your satisfaction, and putting you out of conceit with nearly every author that comes in their way. The first are frequently actuated by personal friendship, the last by all the virulence of party spirit.

WILLIAM HAZLITT

Table Talk: Essays on Men and Manners


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 BRUYÈRE

"Of Works of the Mind", Les Caractères


What he, the writer, is asking is impossible. Why should he expect this extraordinary being, the perfect critic (who does occasionally exist), why should there be anyone else who comprehends what he is trying to do? Aftar all, there is only one person spinning that particular cocoon, only one person whose business it is to spin it.

DORIS LESSING

Partisan Review, 1973


Many critics are like woodpeckers, who, instead of enjoying the fruit and shadow of a tree, hop incessantly around the trunk, pecking holes in the bark to discover some little worm or other.

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

Table-Talk


It is true, I suppose, that nobody finds it exactly pleasant to be criticized our shouted at, but I see in the faces of the human being raging at me a wild animal in its true colors, one more horrible than any lion, crocodile or dragon.

OSAMU DAZAI

No Longer Human


Critics? Don't talk to me of critics! You think some jackanapes journalist, his soul eaten away by the maggots of jealousy and failure, has anything worthwhile to say of art? I don't.

JONATHAN RABAN

attributed, Looking Together: Writers on Art


Critics are like eunuchs in a harem. They see how it should be done every night. But they can't do it themselves.

BRENDAN BEHAN

attributed, As One Mad with Wine and Other Similes


Criticism often takes from the tree caterpillars and blossoms together.

JEAN PAUL RICHTER

Titan


You find very few critics who approach their job with a combination of information and enthusiasm and humility that makes for a good critic. But there is nothing wrong with critics as long as people don't pay any attention to them. I mean, nobody wants to put them out of a job and a good critic is not necessarily a dead critic. It's just that people take what a critic says as a fact rather than an opinion, and you have to know whether the opinion of the critic is informed or uninformed, intelligent of stupid -- but most people don't take the trouble.

EDWARD ALBEE

"Edward Albee: An Interview", Edward Albee: Planned Wilderness