Critics Quotes

• I love criticism just so long as it's unqualified praise.

  Noel Coward

  Funny, Humor, Long

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• It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; . . . who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Motivational, Courage, Strong

  Address at the Sorbonne, Paris, 23 Apr. 1910. Richard M. Nixon quoted this passage in his address to the nation announcing his decision to resign the presidency, 8 Aug. 1974. See Theodore Roosevelt 1; Theodore Roosevelt 2; Theodore Roosevelt 5

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• The critic has to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic.

  Oscar Wilde

  Artist, Criticism, Educate

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “Epigrams of Oscar Wilde”, p.176, Wordsworth Editions

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• How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Positive Thinking, Criticism, Politics

  Benjamin Disraeli, (1992). “The Sayings of Disraeli”, p.24, Gerald Duckworth & Co

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• This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.

  Dorothy Parker

  Book, Reading, Beer

  Quoted in The AlgonquinWits, ed. Robert E. Drennan (1968)

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• I don't know anybody who needs a critic to find out what art is.

  Ansel Adams

  Art, Needs, Knows

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  When my time on earth is done and my activities here are past, I want them to bury me upside down, so my critics can kiss my ass.

  Bobby Knight

  Inspirational, Basketball, Sports

  "Knight moves to Texas" by Kevin Asseo, news.bbc.co.uk. March 22, 2001.

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• I like criticism. It makes you strong.

  LeBron James

  Basketball, Strong, Inspiration

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  The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.

  Norman Vincent Peale

  Inspirational, Integrity, Yoga

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  Do what you feel in your heart to be right - for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't.

  Eleanor Roosevelt

  Integrity, Heart, Positivity

  "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living". Book by Dale Carnegie, 1948.

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• The true work of a critic is not to make his hearer believe him, but agree with him.

  John Ruskin

  Believe, Agree

  John Ruskin (1855). “Notes on Some of the Principal Pictures Exhibited in the Rooms of the Royal Academy, the Old and New Societies of Painters in Water Colours, the Society of British Artists and the French Exhibition”, p.11

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• Critical thinking does seem a superior sort of thinking because it seems as though the critic is actually going beyond the scope of what is being criticized in order to criticize it. That is only rarely a true assumption because, most often, the critic will seize on some little aspect that he or she understands and tackle only that.

  Edward de Bono

  Thinking, Order, Doe

  Edward De Bono (1991). “I Am Right, You are Wrong: From this to the New Renaissance : from Rock Logic to Water Logic”, Penguin Group USA

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• Writers are rarely their own best critics, nor are critics.

  Anthony Burgess

  Anthony Burgess (2011). “A Clockwork Orange”, p.15, W. W. Norton & Company

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• When a critic knows what she or he is looking at and writes revealingly about it, it's sublime.

  Charles Saatchi

  Writing, Sublime, Knows

  Charles Saatchi (2009). “My Name is Charles Saatchi and I Am an Artoholic”, Phaidon Press

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• The sincere artist is usually his own best critic, but continuous and prolonged work on one painting will sometimes dull his judgment... The critic is in demand, but he must be competent.

  Walter J. Phillips

  Artist, Demand, Dull

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• 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.

  Winston Churchill

  Leadership, Pain, Growth

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• The best critic needn't be right, just interesting.

  Walter Kirn

  Interesting

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• If connoisseurship is the art of appreciation, criticism is the art of disclosure... Connoisseurs simply need to appreciate what they encounter. Critics, however, must render these qualities vivid by the artful use of critical disclosure.

  Elliot W. Eisner

  Appreciation, Art, Appreciate

  Elliot W. Eisner (2005). “Reimagining Schools: The Selected Works of Elliot W. Eisner”, p.41, Routledge

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• I don't feel any real animosity towards critics when they write negative things. I think some are more perceptive than others. Some are very knowledgeable about painting. But it isn't something I have any influence over, so there isn't any point in worrying about it.

  Peter Doig

  Real, Writing, Thinking

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• Critics should help people see for themselves; they should never try to define things, or impose their own explanations, though I admit that if... a critic's explanations serve to increase the general obscurity, that's all to the good.

  Georges Braque

  People, Trying, Obscurity

  Georges Braque (1964). “Georges Braque, 1882-1963: An American Tribute”

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• You know who the critics are? The men who have failed in literature and art.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Art, Criticism, Literature

  "The Sayings of Disraeli".

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• It is the will of God that we must have critics and missionaries and congressmen and humorists, and we must bear the burden

  Mark Twain

  God, Bears, Burden

  Mark Twain, Harriet Elinor Smith (2012). “Autobiography of Mark Twain: Reader's Edition”, p.201, Univ of California Press

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• A good review from the critics is just another stay of execution.

  Dustin Hoffman

  Criticism, Execution, Reviews

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Be eager to lend a patient ear to the opinions of others and think long and hard whether whoever finds fault has reason or not to censure you. And if the answer is yes, correct the fault. If no, give the impression that you have not heard him, or if he is a man whom you respect, explain to him why he is mistaken.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Men, Thinking, Giving

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• Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man's growth without destroying his roots.

  Frank A. Clark

  Encouragement, Rain, Hard Work

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