Quotes About Criticism

He (The warden) was painfully afraid of a disagreement with any person in any subject....he felt horror at the thought of being made the subject of common gossip and public criticism.

As the high mountains are intersected by deep valleys, as puritanism in one age begets infidelity in the next, as in many countries the thickness of the winter's ice will be in proportion to the number of the summer musquitoes, so was the keenness of the hostility displayed on this occasion in proportion to the warmth of the support which was manifested.  As the great man was praised, so also was he abused. 

Of all reviews, the crushing review is the most popular, as being the most readable.

Considering how much we are all given to discuss the characters of others, and discuss them often not in the strictest spirit of charity, it is singular how little we are inclined to think that others can speak ill-naturedly of us, and how angry and hurt we are when proof reach us that they have done so.

A man may have the best of causes, the best of talents, and the best of tempers; he may write as well as Addison, or as strongly as Junius; but even with all this he cannot successfully answer, when attacked by The Jupiter. In such matters it is omnipotent. What the Czar is in Russia, or the mob in America, that The Jupiter is in England. Answer such an article! No, warden; whatever you do, don't do that.

Miss Thorne made no reply. She felt that she had no good ground on which to defend her sex of the present generation from the sarcasm of Mr. Plomacy. She had once declared, in one of her warmer moments, "that now-a-days the gentlemen were all women, and the ladies all men." She could not alter the debased character of the age. But

Abuse from those who occasionally praise is considered to be personally offensive, and they who give personal offence will sometimes make the world too hot to hold them. But censure from those who are always finding fault is regarded so much as a matter of course that it ceases to be objectionable. The

Just as authors are told not to read the criticisms; — but I never would believe any author who told me that he didn't read what was said about him. I wonder when the man found out that I was good-natured. He wouldn't find me good-natured if I could get hold of him.

It was admitted by all her friends, and also by her enemies, — who were in truth the more numerous and active body of the two, — that Lizzie Greystock had done very well with herself. We will tell the story of Lizzie Greystock from the beginning, but we will not dwell over it at great length, as we might do if we loved her.

CHAPTER XXXVIII 'YOU ARE SO SEVERE

It is so easy to condemn — and so pleasant too, for eulogy charms no listeners as detraction does.

iniquities of the Puseyites.

Mr Alf never made enemies, for he praised no one, and, as far as the expression of his newspaper went, was satisfied with nothing.

Female Chauvinist Pigs don't bother to question the criteria on which women are judged, they are too busy judging other women themselves

Make peace with the fact that there will be those who bitch no matter what you do. You might as well do what makes you happy, so at least when you hear the bitching, you'll know that the event they're griping about was exactly the one you wanted.

Each man judges correctly those matters with which he is acquainted; it is of these that he is a competent critic.

Criticism is something you can easily avoid by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.

If the poet's description be criticized as not true to fact, one may urge perhaps that the object ought to be as described—an answer like that of Sophocles, who said that he drew men as they ought to be, and Euripides as they were.

To avoid criticism: Say noting, do nothing, be nothing.

A man may take one step ahead of his culture and chance being called a genius. But if he takes two steps, he is certain to be called a menace, a madman, a fool.

He seems to have declared war on the King's English as well as on the English king.

You're lucky you won't ever be pretty. Harriet knew already that this would keep her heartsick for months, perhaps the rest of her life, and she said thickly, I'm losing weight right now. It isn't that you're so fat, Miss Tyler said critically. You just don't have the air of a pretty woman. All your life, for instance, you'll walk like you're fat, whether you are or not.

But it's as my mother says: "When a girl can't dance, she blames the musicians …

When people criticise me, I know how to defend myself. But I'm powerless in the face of praise.