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When I read the rules of criticism, I immediately inquire after
the works of the author who has written them, and by that means
discover what it is he likes in a composition.
Author: Joseph Addison
Source: in the "Guardian", no. 115
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He was in Logic, a great critic,
Profoundly skill'd in Analytic;
He could distinguish, and divide
A hair 'twixt south and south-west side.
Author: Samuel Butler (1)
Source: Hudibras (pt. I, canto I, l. 65)
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A man must serve his time to every trade
Save censure--critics all are ready made.
Take hackney'd jokes from Miller, got by rote,
With just enough of learning to misquote;
A mind well skill'd to find or forge a fault;
A turn for punning, call it Attic salt;
To Jeffrey go, be silent and discreet,
His pay is just ten sterling pounds per sheet;
Fear not to lie, 'twill seem a lucky hit;
Shrink not from blasphemy, 'twill pass for wit;
Care not for feeling--pass your proper jest,
And stand a critic, hated yet caress'd.
Author: Lord Byron (George Gordon Noel Byron)
Source: English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (l. 63)
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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.
Author: Lord Byron (George Gordon Noel Byron)
Source: English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (l. 75)
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Said the pot to the kettle, "Get away, blackface."
[Sp., Dijo la sarten a la caldera, quitate alla ojinegra.]
Author: Cervantes (Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra)
Source: Don Quixote (II, 67)
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Who shall dispute what the Reviewers say?
Their word's sufficient; and to ask a reason,
In such a state as theirs, is downright treason.
Author: Charles Churchill
Source: Apology (l. 94)
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Though by whim, envy, or resentment led,
They damn those authors whom they never read.
Author: Charles Churchill
Source: The Candidate (l. 57)
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A servile race
Who, in mere want of fault, all merit place;
Who blind obedience pay to ancient schools,
Bigots to Greece, and slaves to musty rules.
Author: Charles Churchill
Source: The Rosciad (l. 183)
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But, spite of all the criticising elves,
Those who would make us feel, must feel themselves.
Author: Charles Churchill
Source: The Rosciad (l. 961)
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I criticize by creation--not by finding fault.
Author: Charles Churchill
Source: The Rosciad (l. 961)
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Reviewers are usually people who would have been poets,
historians, biographers, etc., if they could: they have tried
their talents at one or the other, and have failed; therefore
they turn critics.
Author: Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Source: Lectures on Shakespeare and Milton (p. 36)
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Too nicely Jonson knew the critic's part,
Nature in him was almost lost in art.
Author: William Collins
Source: Epistle to Sir Thomas Hanmer on his Edition of Shakespeare
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There are come Critics so with Spleen diseased,
They scarcely come inclining to be pleased:
And sure he must have more than mortal Skill,
Who please one against his Will.
Author: William Congreve
Source: The Way of the World (epilogue)
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Criticism is easy, and art is difficult.
[Fr., La critique est aisee, et l'art est difficile.]
Author: Phillipe V. Destouches
Source: Glorieux (II, 5)
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The press, the pulpit, and the stage,
Conspire to censure and expose our age.
Author: Wentworth Dillon, Earl of Roscomon
Source: Essay on Translated Verse (l. 7)
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It is much easier to be critical that to be correct.
Author: Benjamin Disraeli
Source: in a speech in the House of Commons
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You know who critics are?--the men who have failed in literature
and art.
Author: Benjamin Disraeli
Source: Lothair (ch. XXXV)
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The most noble criticism is that in which the critic is not the
antagonist so much as the rival of the author.
Author: Isaac D'Israeli
Source: Curiosities of Literature--Literary Journals
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Those who do not read criticism will rarely merit to be
criticised.
Author: Isaac D'Israeli
Source: Literary Character of Men of Genius (ch. VI)
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Ill writers are usually the sharpest censors.
Author: John Dryden
Source: Dedication of translations from Ovid
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They who write ill, and they who ne'er durst write,
Turn critics out of mere revenge and spite.
Author: John Dryden
Source: Prologue to Conquest of Granada
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All who (like him) have writ ill plays before,
For they, like thieves, condemned, are hangman made,
To execute the members of their trade.
Author: John Dryden
Source: Prologue to Rival Queens
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"I'm an owl: you're another. Sir Critic, good day." And the
barber kept on shaving.
Author: James Thomas Fields
Source: The Owl-Critic
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Blame where you must, be candid where you can,
And be each critic the Good-natured Man.
Author: Oliver Goldsmith
Source: The Good-Natured Man (epilogue)
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Reviewers are forever telling authors they can't understand them.
The author might often reply: Is that my fault?
Author: A.W. Hare and J.C. Hare
Source: Guesses at Truth
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Give no time to finding fault of criticism.
Author: Marvin J. Ashton
Source: None
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He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help.
Author: Abraham Lincoln
Source: None
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People ask for criticism, but they only want praise.
Author: Somerset Maugham
Source: None
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Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.
Author: George Eliot
Source: None
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Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.
Author: Alexander Pope
Source: None
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Honest criticism is hard to take - especially when it comes from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger.
Author: Franklin Jones
Source: None
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To avoid criticism do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.
Author: Elbert Hubbard
Source: None
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Some people are always critical of vague statements. I tend rather to be critical of precise statements; they are the only ones which can correctly be labeled "wrong.".
Author: Raymond Smullyan
Source: None
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Each generation produces its squad of "moderns" with peashooters to attack Gibraltar.
Author: Channing Pollock
Source: None
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Criticism, as it was first instituted by Aristotle, was meant as a standard of judging well.
Author: Samuel Johnson
Source: None
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The rule in carving holds good as to criticism; never cut with a knife what you can cut with a spoon.
Author: Charles Buxton
Source: None
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It is much easier to be critical than to be correct.
Author: Benjamin Disraeli
Source: None
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The strength of criticism lies in the weakness of the thing criticized.
Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Source: None
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Blame is safer than praise.
Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Source: None
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I never give them hell; I just tell them the truth and they think it is hell.
Author: Harry S. Truman
Source: None
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Even the lion has to defend himself against flies.
Author: Anonymous
Source: None
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Remember that nobody will ever get ahead of you as long as he is kicking you in the seat of the pants.
Author: Walter Winchell
Source: None
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The public is the only critic whose opinion is worth anything at all.
Author: Mark Twain
Source: None
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