Quotes About Criticism

The problem with religion, because it's been sheltered from criticism, is that it allows people to believe en masse what only idiots or lunatics could believe in isolation.

While religious faith is the one species of human ignorance that will not admit of even the possibility of correction, it is still sheltered from criticism in every corner of our culture.

Our fear of provoking religious hatred has rendered us unwilling to criticize ideas that are increasingly maladaptive and patently ridiculous.

Criticizing a person's ideas about God and the afterlife is thought to be impolitic in a way that criticizing his ideas about physics or history is not.

The problem that religious moderation poses for all of us is that it does not permit anything very critical to be said about religious literalism.

While religious tolerance is surely better than religious war, tolerance is not without its problems. Our fear of provoking religious hatred has rendered us unwilling to criticize ideas that are increasingly maladaptive and patently ridiculous.

What constitutes a civil society? At minimum, it is a place where ideas, of all kinds, can be criticized without the risk of physical violence. If you live in a land where certain things cannot be said about the king, or about an imaginary being, or about certain books, because such utterances carry the penalty of death, torture, or imprisonment, you do not live in a civil society. It

To point out nonepistemic motives in another's view of the world, therefore, is always a criticism, as it serves to cast doubt upon a person's connection to the world as it is.

Pero cuando se nos pide una opinión, no hacemos ningún favor a nuestros amigos fingiendo no apreciar defectos en su trabajo, en especial cuando quienes no son sus amigos están obligados a reparar en esos mismos defectos.

This is one of the things I find so insufferable about the liberal backlash against critics of Islam—especially the pernicious meme "Islamophobia," by which anyone who thinks Islam merits special concern at this moment in history is branded a bigot.

When was the last time that someone was criticized for not respecting another person's unfounded beliefs about physics or history? The same rules should apply to ethical, spiritual, and religious beliefs as well.

If religious war is ever to become unthinkable for us, in the way that slavery and cannibalism seem poised to, it will be a matter of having dispensed with the dogma of faith. If our tribalism is ever to give way to an extended moral identity, our religious beliefs can no longer be sheltered from the tides of genuine inquiry and genuine criticism. It is time we realized that to presume knowledge where one has only pious hope is a species of evil.

To pick up the paper and read about yourself getting slammed, that doesn't start your day off right.

Boxing is the only sport where you have the audience coming right up to you and saying, "You Stink." And you got to deal with that. It's like being in front of the lions.

Look what's happened to Barack Obama over the last two years or George Bush for eight. It's a blood sport. But at some point, I may feel the need to run for office again.

People are going to say what they say. I know sometimes I say things; I offend people.

I took it personal. I got slammed quite a bit.

Patience is a strength, not a weakness; and if by practicing patience we stop retaliating to harm and criticism, people will gradually come to understand that our real nature is very special

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

A man should be able to hear, and to bear, the worst that could be said of him.

The net has provided a level playing field for criticism and comment - anyone and everyone is entitled to their opinion - and that is one of its greatest strengths.

The values learned on the playing field-how to set goals, endure, take criticism and risks, become team players, use our beliefs, stay healthy and deal with stress-prepare us for life.

We're born with success. It is only others who point out our failures, and what they attribute to us as failure.

Nothing stinks like a pile of unpublished writing.