Quotes About Self-criticism

The high ambition, therefore, seems to me to be this: That one should strive to combine the maximum of impatience with the maximum of skepticism, the maximum of hatred of injustice and irrationality with the maximum of ironic self-criticism. This would mean really deciding to learn from history rather than invoking or sloganising it.

Karl Marx was rightest of all when he recommended continual doubt and self-criticism. Membership in the skeptical faction or tendency is not at all a soft option. The defense of science and reason is the great imperative of our time.

Perfectionism really is the enemy of happiness and success.

He had painted it himself, for he knew how to do a little of everything—badly.

The same common-sense which makes an author write good things, makes him dread they are not good enough to deserve reading.

I am indeed my most unmerciful critic.

Your only defense is to be hard on yourself, which becomes compulsive, and therefore a comfort, to peck yourself to death.

What embitters the world is not excess of criticism, but absence of self-criticism.

I'm so critical of myself. I'm actually really, really proud of the film. It's really cool to see a movie at Sundance because everybody is so supportive.

perfectionism is sometimes the most dangerous set of thoughts you can let make their home in your head.

I'm usually a fairly harsh critic. It depends. I tend to really not watch my work, because I just feel uncomfortable, and I can be highly critical.

I always say I've given 24 insufficient performances and I'm looking forward to the time in my life when I'll do something that I think is good. There's always stuff you can do better, stuff that maybe you didn't uncover enough. But if you do something that you truly believe is perfect, then that's got to be the last movie you do.

A writer is unfair to himself when he is unable to be hard on himself.

Unfortunately, I am very aware of editing and I look at the monitor too much. Sometimes the monitor can become your worst enemy because you can, consciously or unconsciously, start editing yourself.

That's going to be your trouble — judgment about yourself.(Tender is the Night)

I'm very critical of myself and I know the levels I want to achieve so I'm very hard on myself. So the staff and players are very hard on me as well, which is what I want as I want to get to as high a level as possible.

When I watch myself, I see nothing but faults, like, 'This I need to do different, this I need to do different,' and so if there comes a point in time where I'm like, 'Man, this whole thing is just getting really stale,' I am not opposed to being the bad guy again.

I really care about what I put out, and probably more than the fans care. At times, I think I over-care. But I just know that the body of work has such a high standard that it's kind of like, in my own head, I need to at least match it if not get over that, so that's the challenge.

I am tough on myself. It's just how I am. I hold myself to a standard.

I had so much anger and judgement towards myself for my work not being up to the standard that I expected it to be, so I wouldn't allow myself to complete anything.

Even I don't always come up to my own standards of perfection.

I do have high standards. I look at everything I have done and think, 'Why wasn't that better?' Part of my motivation is from crippling self-doubt - I have got to prove myself wrong.

Even by rock star standards, I was pretty awful.

If I body-shame a woman, it is more a reflection of me being critical of my body, me not being able to keep up to certain standards I have, and so making sure that the women around me feel the same way.