Criticism(Related Subjects: Advice, Failure)

How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct. Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881), speech, January 24, 1860 Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamppost how it feels about dogs. Christopher Hampton Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain - and most fools do. Dale Carnegie If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much. Donald H. Rumsfeld (1932 - ), Secretary of Defense To avoid criticism do nothing, say nothing, be nothing. Elbert Hubbard (1856 - 1915) 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 (1884 - 1962) Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger. Franklin P. Jones Criticism is prejudice made plausible. H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956) No degree of dullness can safeguard a work against the determination of critics to find it fascinating. Harold Rosenberg Now, in reality, the world have paid too great a compliment to critics, and have imagined them to be men of much greater profundity then they really are. Henry Fielding (1707 - 1754) Pay no attention to what the critics say... Remember, a statue has never been set up in honor of a critic! Jean Sibelius (1865 - 1957), quoted in Bengt de Torne "Sibelius: A Close-Up" 1937 Against criticism a man can neither protest nor defend himself; he must act in spite of it, and then it will gradually yield to him. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832) Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae. Kurt Vonnegut (1922 - ) Never criticize a man until you've walked a mile in his moccasins. Native American Proverb I never met anybody who said when they were a kid, "I wanna grow up and be a critic." Richard Pryor (1940 - ), Guardian Unlimited (UK) August 9, 2004 One cannot review a bad book without showing off. W. H. Auden (1907 - 1973) People ask for criticism, but they only want praise. W. Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965) Criticism comes easier than craftsmanship. Zeuxis (~400 BC), from Pliny the Elder, Natural History