Quotes About Criticism

Poets, like whores, are only hated by each other.

Everyone is in favor of free speech. Hardly a day passes without its being extolled, but some people's idea of it is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone else says anything back, that is an outrage.

Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body; it calls attention to the development of an unhealthy state of things. If it is heeded in time, danger may be averted; if it is suppressed, a fatal distemper may develop. [ New Statesman interview, 7 January 1939]

Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.

Because what is civilized life but an imposition of unreal standards upon flawed and defective human beings by other human beings no less flawed and defective?

Mr. Attlee is a modest man with much to be modest about.

I have adhered to my rule of never criticising any measure of war or policy after the event unless I had before expressed publicly or formally my opinion or warning about it.

I want no criticism of America at my table. The Americans criticise themselves more than enough.

It's ridiculous what little the French do!

if I must add one word of criticism to the Vikings [it is] that they were entirely lacking in any conception of neutrality.

He is no better than an epileptic corpse.

Nie, Kancie! Twoja Krytyka, cho?by najbardziej Å›cisÅ'a i najgÅ'Ä™bsza, w siódmych potach pisana, nie wystarczy. SiekierÄ™ zÅ'ap! ZÅ'ap, mówiÄ™, siekierÄ™, wpadnij z siekierÄ… i ciach, na prawo i lewo, dzieci i kobiety, mÅ'odzie? i robotników, i w ogóle wszystkich, tak, wszystkich i wszystkich!... TÄ™pienie gÅ'upoty nie mo?e odbywa? siÄ™ tylko na papierze!

This isn't right. This isn't even wrong.

If Jesus came back and saw what's going on in his name, he'd never stop throwing up.

If it's bad, I'll hate it because I hate bad writing. If it's good, I'll be envious and hate it all the more.

If Jesus came back and saw what was going on in his name, he'd never stop throwing-up.

was also writing of the love-hate relationship the public has with its heroes or celebrities. One moment they want your autograph, the next they're ready to shoot you. Some

Tortellini was one of the only things you could eat there and that tasted passable if one's demands for flavor were kept at a minimum. I often told Elaine that her food would have been turned down by the lost party on the Donner Pass.

The only criticisms I have are that, one, many are gratuitously dirty. Remember, I'm saying gratuitously. I don't mind dirty when it contributes to the funny routine, but since language was liberated in the sixties, it's embarrassing to hear acts punctuate their material with the old so-called dirty words. Apparently, the

To quote the usually reasonable and level-headed New York Times, I was "a monster." Somewhere, Kafka was smiling.

Is this not the quintessence of hypocrisy when Ronan writes a book critical of NBC for trying to kill his story on Harvey Weinstein? But, I guess whatever works.

After all, would the world really miss this fatuous little suppository, with his preening self-confidence and emetic cuteness?

'Bombing Afghanistan back into the Stone Age' was quite a favourite headline for some wobbly liberals. The slogan does all the work. But an instant's thought shows that Afghanistan is being, if anything, bombed out of the Stone Age.

Social criticism that addressed the real issue in higher education today - the university's assimilation into the corporate order, and the emergence of a knowledge class whose "subversive" activities do not seriously threaten any vested interest - would be a welcome addition to contemporary discourse. For obvious reasons, however, this kind of discourse is unlikely to get much encouragement either from the academic left, or from its critics on the right.