Criticism quotes
1.3K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."
"We can not fight for our rights and our history as well as future until we are armed with weapons of criticism and dedicated consciousness."
"If you have no will to change it, you have no right to criticize it."
"No government should be without critics. If its intentions are good then it has nothing to fear from criticism."
"People are drastically overconfident about their judgments of others."
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside criticism — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"Worry is itself an illness, since worry is an accusation against Divine Wisdom, a criticism of Divine Mercy."
"When art critics get together they talk about Form and Structure and Meaning. When artists get together they talk about where you can buy cheap turpentine."
"Criticism can bother you, but you should be more bothered if there’s no criticism. That means you’re too safe"
"Ours is an age of criticism, to which everything must be subjected. The sacredness of religion, and the authority of legislation, are by many regarded as grounds for exemption from the examination by this tribunal, But, if they are exempted, and cannot lay claim to sincere respect, which reason accords only to that which has stood the test of a free and public examination."
"Only mediocrity escapes criticism."
"Human intellect is natures attempt at self criticism"
"Constantly seek criticism. A well thought out critique of what you're doing is as valuable as gold"
"Islam and Islamic values now have a level of immunity from comment and criticism in the Western world that Christianity has lost and Judaism has never had."
"They condemn what they do not understand."
"It is a thing of no great difficulty to raise objections against another man's oration, it is a very easy matter; but to produce a better in it's place is a work extremely troublesome."
"The aim of language...is to communicate...to impart to others the results one has obtained...As I talk, I reveal the situation...I reveal it to myself and to others in order to change it."
"In most modern instances, interpretation amounts to the philistine refusal to leave the work of art alone. Real art has the capacity to make us nervous. By reducing the work of art to its content and then interpreting that, one tames the work of art. Interpretation makes art manageable, conformable."
"I am not a critic; to me criticism is so often nothing more than the eye garrulously denouncing the shape of the peephole that gives access to hidden treasure."
"A great deal of contemporary criticism reads to me like a man saying, 'Of course I do not like green cheese. I am very fond of brown sherry."
"People say you should read your criticism because it will make you a better person but it doesn't. It just makes you a sad bitter old showbiz nightmare."
"Ours is an age of criticism, to which everything must be subjected."
"I get out my work and have a show for myself before I have it publicly. I make up my own mind about it-how good or bad or indifferent it is. After that, the critics can write what they please. I have already settled it for myself so flattery and criticism go down the same drain and I am quite free."
"According to my principles, every master has his true and certain value. Praise and criticism cannot change any of that. Only the work itself praises and criticizes the master, and therefore I leave to everyone his own value."
"The critic has to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic."
"How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct."
