Criticism: that fine flower of personal expression in the garden of letters.
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-born British Novelist
Did some more sober critics come abroad? If wrong, I smil’d; if right, I kiss’d the rod.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
Strike the dog dead, it’s but a critic!
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
What a blessed thing it is, that Nature, when she invented, manufactured, and patented her authors, contrived to make critics out of the chips that were left!
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
Since we cannot attain unto it, let us revenge ourselves with railing against it.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
Neither praise or blame is the object of true criticism. Justly to discriminate, firmly to establish, wisely to prescribe, and honestly to award. These are the true aims and duties of criticism.
—William Gilmore Simms (1806–70) American Poet, Novelist, Historian
There are two modes of criticism. One which crushes to earth without mercy all the humble buds of Phantasy, all the plants that, though green and fruitful, are also a prey to insects or have suffered by drought. It weeds well the garden, and cannot believe the weed in its native soil may be a pretty, graceful plant. There is another mode which enters into the natural history of every thing that breathes and lives, which believes no impulse to be entirely in vain, which scrutinizes circumstances, motive and object before it condemns, and believes there is a beauty in natural form, if its law and purpose be understood.
—Margaret Fuller (1810–50) American Feminist, Writer, Revolutionary
The public is the only critic whose opinion is worth anything at all.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Having a sharp tongue will cut your throat.
—Anonymous
Men over forty are no judges of a book written in a new spirit.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The dread of criticism is the death of genius.
—William Gilmore Simms (1806–70) American Poet, Novelist, Historian
A drama critic is a person who surprises the playwright by informing him what he meant.
—Wilson Mizner (1876–1933) American Playwright, Entrepreneur
There is one way to handle the ignorant and malicious critic. Ignore him.
—Unknown
If you burn your neighbors house down, it doesn’t make your house look any better.
—Lou Holtz (1893–1980) American Stage Performer
Praise those of your critics for whom nothing is up to standard.
—Dag Hammarskjold (1905–61) Swedish Statesman, UN Diplomat
Good critical writing is measured by the perception and evaluation of the subject; bad critical writing by the necessity of maintaining the professional standing of the critic.
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959) American Novelist
If you believe in what you are doing, then let nothing hold you up in your work. Much of the best work of the world has been done against seeming impossibilities. The thing is to get the work done.
—Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American Self-Help Author
Many great ideas have been lost because people who had them could not stand being laughed at.
—Anonymous
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 (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
It is critical vision alone which can mitigate the unimpeded operation of the automatic.
—Marshall Mcluhan (1911–80) Canadian Writer, Thinker, Educator
Writing prejudicial, off-putting reviews is a precise exercise in applied black magic. The reviewer can draw free-floating disagreeable associations to a book by implying that the book is completely unimportant without saying exactly why, and carefully avoiding any clear images that could capture the reader’s full attention.
—William S. Burroughs (1914–97) American Novelist, Poet, Short Story Writer, Painter
You know what the critics are. If you tell the truth they only say you’re cynical and it does an author no good to get a reputation for cynicism.
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
There are two insults no human will endure: the assertion that he has no sense of humor and the doubly impertinent assertion that he has never known trouble.
—Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951) American Novelist, Short-Story Writer
People want you to be a crazy, out-of-control teen brat. They want you miserable, just like them. They don’t want heroes; what they want is to see you fall.
—Leonardo DiCaprio (b.1974) American Actor, Film Producer
If evil be spoken of you and it be true, correct yourself, if it be a lie, laugh at it.
—Epictetus (55–135) Ancient Greek Philosopher
He who throws dirt always loses ground.
—Indian Proverb
I’d rather be hissed at for a good verse, than applauded for a bad one.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
The eyes of critics, whether in commending or carping, are both on one side, like those of a turbot.
—Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864) English Writer, Poet
All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.
—Unknown
God knows people who are paid to have attitudes toward things, professional critics, make me sick; camp following eunuchs of literature. They won’t even whore. They’re all virtuous and sterile. And how well meaning and high minded. But they’re all camp followers.
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer
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 (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
Praise or blame has but a momentary effect on the man whose love of beauty in the abstract makes him a severe critic on his own works.
—John Keats (1795–1821) English Poet
It is strange that we do not temper our resentment of criticism with a thought for our many faults which have escaped us.
—Indian Proverb
Never criticize a man until you’ve walked a mile in his moccasins.
—American Indian Proverb
He cannot be strict in judging, who does not wish others to be strict judges of himself.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
You should not say it is not good. You should say you do not like it; and then, you know, you’re perfectly safe.
—James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) American Painter, Etcher
Those who can—do. Those who can’t—criticize.
—Indian Proverb
Most of our censure of others is only oblique praise of self, uttered to show the wisdom and superiority of the speaker. It has all the invidiousness of self-praise, and all the ill-desert of falsehood.
—Tryon Edwards American Theologian
Criticism should not be querulous and wasting, all knife and root-puller, but guiding, instructive, inspiring.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be silent as to his works. An assault upon a town is a bad thing; but starving it is still worse.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
The critical opinions of a writer should always be taken with a large grain of salt. For the most part, they are manifestations of his debate with himself as to what he should do next and what he should avoid.
—W. H. Auden (1907–73) British-born American Poet, Dramatist
The author himself is the best judge of his own performance; none has so deeply meditated on the subject; none is so sincerely interested in the event.
—Edward Gibbon (1737–94) English Historian, Politician
Those who have free seats at a play hiss first.
—Chinese Proverb
Most of us are umpires at heart; we like to call balls and strikes on somebody else.
—Leo Aikman (1908–78) American Columnist
The good critic is he who relates the adventures of his soul among masterpieces.
—Anatole France (1844–1924) French Novelist
Write how you want, the critic shall show the world you could have written better.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
I never read a book before reviewing it; it prejudices a man so.
—Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English Clergyman, Essayist, Wit
Art is not the application of a canon of beauty but what the instinct and the brain can conceive beyond any canon. When we love a woman we don’t start measuring her limbs.
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish Painter, Sculptor, Artist
If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how, the very best I can, and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won’t amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
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 (1754–1824) French Writer, Moralist