Critics Quotes - Page 40

• Critics write out of intellectual exercise, not poets. Poets write straight from the heart.

  Erica Jong

  Writing, Heart, Exercise

  6 Copy quote

• Down through the years my face has been called a sour puss, a dead pan, a frozen face, The Great Stone Face, and, believe it or not, "a tragic mask." On the other hand that kindly critic, the late James Agee, described my face as ranking "almost with Lincoln's as an early American archetype, it was haunting, handsome, almost beautiful." I can't imagine what the great rail splitter's reaction would have been to this, though I sure was pleased.

  Buster Keaton

  Beautiful, Believe, Hands

  "My Wonderful World Of Slapstick".

  53 Copy quote

  Show source

• I am in fact a Hobbit in all but size. I like gardens, trees, and unmechanized farmlands; I smoke a pipe, and like good plain food (unrefrigerated), but detest French cooking; I like, and even dare to wear in these dull days, ornamental waistcoats. I am fond of mushrooms (out of a field); have a very simple sense of humor (which even my appreciative critics find tiresome); I go to bed late and get up late (when possible). I do not travel much.

  J. R. R. Tolkien

  Simple, Garden, Mushrooms

  Letter to Deborah Webster, 25 Oct. 1958

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• The writer must be four people: 1) The nut, the obsede 2) The moron 3) The stylist 4) The critic. 1 supplies the material; 2 lets it come out; 3 is taste; 4 is intelligence.

  Susan Sontag

  Nuts, People, Four

  Susan Sontag (2008). “Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963”, Farrar, Straus and Giroux

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• A non-doer is very often a critic-that is, someone who sits back and watches doers, and then waxes philosophically about how the doers are doing. It's easy to be a critic, but being a doer requires effort, risk, and change.

  Wayne Dyer

  Spiritual, Positive Thinking, Achievement

  Wayne W. Dyer (2009). “Staying on the Path: Easyread Super Large 20pt Edition”, p.12, ReadHowYouWant.com

  22 Copy quote

  Show source

• Picture this scene. A critic arrives at the gates of heaven. 'And what did you do?' asks Saint Peter. 'Well', says the dead soul. 'I criticised things'. 'I beg your pardon?' 'You know, other people wrote things, performed things, painted things and I said stuff like, "thin and unconvincing", "turgid and uninspired", "competent and serviceable,"...you know'.

  Stephen Fry

  People, Heaven, Soul

  "Paperweight". Book by Stephen Fry, 1992.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• As many critics of religion have pointed out, the notion of a creator poses an immediate problem of an infinite regress. If God created the universe, what created God? To say that God, by definition, is uncreated simply begs the question. Any being capable of creating a complex world promises to be very complex himself. As the biologist Richard Dawkins has observed repeatedly, the only natural process we know of that could produce a being capable of designing things is evolution.

  Sam Harris

  Creating, Design, Promise

  8 Copy quote

• The human mind is generally far more eager to praise and dispraise than to describe and define. It wants to make every distinction a distinction of value; hence those fatal critics who can never point out the differing quality of two poets without putting them in an order of preference as if they were candidates for a prize.

  C. S. Lewis

  Order, Two, Mind

  C. S. Lewis (1971). “The Four Loves”, p.24, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Humans have a saying that "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder", which basically means that if you think it's beautiful, then it is beautiful. The elfin version of this saying was composed by the great poet B.O Selecta, who said "Even the plainest of the plain shall deign to reign", which critics have always thought was a bit rhymey. The dwarf version of this maxim is "If it don't stink, marry it", which is slightly less romantic, but the general gist is the same.

  Eoin Colfer

  Beautiful, Mean, Eye

  Eoin Colfer (2014). “Artemis Fowl:”, p.865, Penguin UK

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• The worm that destroys you is the temptation to agree with your critics, to get their approval.

  Thomas Harris

  Temptation, Approval, Worms

  Thomas Harris (1999). “Hannibal”

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• The chronic kicker, even the most violent critic, will frequently soften and be subdued in the presence of a patient, sympathetic listener— a listener who will be silent while the irate fault-finder dilates like a king cobra and spews the poison out of his system.

  Dale Carnegie

  Kings, Kickers, Poison

  Dale Carnegie (2010). “How To Win Friends and Influence People”, p.83, Simon and Schuster

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• The professional learns to recognize envy-driven criticism and to take it for what it is: the supreme compliment. The critic hates most that which he would have done himself if he had had the guts.

  Steven Pressfield

  Hate, Envy, Criticism

  8 Copy quote

• Criticism of others is futile and if you indulge in it often you should be warned that it can be fatal to your career.

  Dale Carnegie

  Motivational, Careers, Indulge In

  54 Copy quote

• Tomorrow night I appear for the first time before a Boston audience - 4000 critics.

  Mark Twain

  Time, Night, Boston

  Mark Twain (2014). “Mark Twain’s Letters & Speeches (Annotated Edition)”, p.181, Jazzybee Verlag

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• If I had listened to the critics I'd have died drunk in the gutter

  Anton Chekhov

  Inspirational, Motivational, Success

  34 Copy quote

• Pay no attention to what the critics say;
  no statue has ever been erected to a critic.

  Jean Sibelius

  Inspirational, Confidence, Perseverance

  91 Copy quote

• Always reward your long hours of labor and toil in the very best way, surrounded by your family. Nurture their love carefully, remembering that your children need models, not critics, and your own progress will hasten when you constantly strive to present your best side to your children. And even if you have failed at all else in the eyes of the world, if you have a loving family, you are a success.

  Og Mandino

  Love, Family, Success

  Og Mandino (2010). “A Better Way to Live: Og Mandino's Own Personal Story of Success Featuring 17 Rules to Live By”, p.64, Bantam

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• I am strongly convinced that the people or society is the best and the most unerring critic.

  Vissarion Belinsky

  Freedom, People, Democracy

  12 Copy quote

• I'm sure critics have their purpose, and they're supposed to do what they do, but sometimes they get a little carried away with what they think someone should have done, rather than concerning themselves with what he did.

  Duke Ellington

  Music, Should Have, Done

  "The Duke Ellington Reader".

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Art critic! Is that a profession? When I think we are stupid enough, we painters, to solicit those people's compliments and to put ourselves into their hands! What shame! Should we even accept that they talk about our work?

  Edgar Degas

  Art, Stupid, Thinking

  10 Copy quote

• The more we refuse to buy into our inner critics - and our external ones too - the easier it will get to have confidence in our choices, and to feel comfortable with who we are.

  Arianna Huffington

  Inspiring, Mothers Day, Confidence

  "A Conversation Between Arianna and Her Daughters". www.huffingtonpost.com. April 9, 2007.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• America's critics can be heard everywhere. It is too much in love with money - worshipping the god of the marketplace, the golden calf. It has too much money, seven of the top 10 banks, eight of the top 10 companies etc. It is too stingy, giving away less of its wealth than other countries. It is vulgar, a rich barbarian.

  Maurice Saatchi

  Country, America, Eight

  7 Copy quote

• Confronted by an absolutely infuriating review, it is sometimes helpful for the victim to do a little personal research on the critic. Is there any truth to the rumor that he had no formal education beyond the age of eleven? In any event, is he able to construct a simple English sentence? Do his participles dangle? When moved to lyricism, does he write "I had a fun time"? Was he ever arrested for burglary? I don't know that you will prove anything this way, but it is perfectly harmless and quite soothing.

  Jean Kerr

  Fun, Writing, Acceptance

  11 Copy quote

• Never retract, never explain, never apologize; get things done and let them howl.

  Nellie L. McClung

  Motivational, Apology, Criticism

  Nellie L. McClung (1915). “In Times Like These”, p.7, University of Toronto Press

  112 Copy quote

  Show source

• As recently as the 1970s, the idea that the point of life was to get rich and that governments existed to facilitate this would have been ridiculed: not only by capitalism's traditional critics but also by many of its staunchest defenders.

  Tony Judt

  Government, Ideas, Wealth

  Tony Judt (2010). “Ill Fares the Land”, p.29, Penguin

  5 Copy quote

  Show source