CRITICS

Related Subjects: Appreciation, Art, Censorship, Judge, Judgment, Opinion, Rebuke, Taste

1. It is ridiculous for any man to criticise the works of another if he has not distinguished himself by his own performances.—ADDISON
   

2. A true critick ought to dwell rather upon excellencies than imperfections, to discover the concealed beauties of a writer, and communicate to the world such things as are worth their observation.—ADDISON, The Spectator
   

3. There is scarcely a good critic of books born in our age, and yet every fool thinks himself justified in criticising persons.—BULWER-LYTTON
   

4. He could distinguish and divide
   A hair 'twixt south and southwest side.—SAMUEL BUTLER, Hudibras
   

5. As soon
   Seek roses in December, ice in June;
   Hope constancy in wind, or corn in chaff;
   Believe a woman or an epitaph,
   Or any other thing that's false, before
   You trust in critics.—BYRON, English Bards & Scotch Reviewers
   

6. Reviewers are usually people who would have been poets, historians, biographers, if they could; they have tried their talents at one or the other and have failed; therefore they turn critics.—COLERIDGE, Lectures on Shakespeare and Milton
   

7. You know who critics are?—the men who have failed in literature and art.—DISRAELI, Lothair
   

8. He praised the Thing he understood;
   'Twere well if every Critic would.—AUSTIN DOBSON, The Squire at Vauxhall
   

9. The good critic relates the adventures of his soul among works of art.—ANATOLE FRANCE
   

10. The severest critics are always those who have either never attempted, or who have failed in original composition.—HAZLITT
    

11. The man who acts the least, upbraids the most.—HOMER, Iliad
    

12. It behooves the minor critic, who hunts for blemishes, to be a little distrustful of his own sagacity.—JUNIUS
    

13. O haud your hands frae inkhorns, though a' the Muses woo;
    For critics lie, like saumon fry, to mak' their meals o' you.—CHARLES KINGSLEY, The Oubit
    

14. The proper function of a critic is to save the tale from the artist who created it.—D. H. LAWRENCE
    

15. Critics are sentinels in the grand army of letters, stationed at the corners of newspapers and reviews to challenge every new author.—LONGFELLOW
    

16. Nature fits all her children with something to do,
    He who would write and can't write, can surely review.—LOWELL, A Fable for Critics
    

17. Every man is his own best critic. Whatever the learned say about a book, however unanimous they are in their praise of it, unless it interests you it is no business of yours.—SOMERSET MAUGHAM, Books and You

18. It is quite cruel that a poet cannot wander through his regions of enchantment without having a critic, forever, like the man of the sea, upon his back.—THOMAS MOORE
    

19. He's the kind of a man that gets up a reputation for being clever and artistic by running down the very one particular thing that everyone likes, and cracking up some book or picture or play that no one has ever heard of.—FRANK NORRIS, The Pit
    

20. Critics are like brushers of other men's clothes.—Proverb
    

21. Every fool can find faults that a great many wise men can't remedy.—Proverb
    

22. For I am nothing if not critical.—SHAKESPEARE, Othello
    

23. The critic leaves at curtain fall
    To find, in starting to review it,
    He scarcely saw the play at all
    For watching his reaction to it.—E. D. WHITE, Critic