Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger.
Franklin P. Jones
There is a certain justice in criticism. The critic is like a midwife - a tyrannical midwife.
Stephen Spender
The most vigilant self-criticism of course is necessary, but the time comes when the artist must tell himself he is good or he will go under
Gerald Moor
Criticism is a study by which men grow important and formidable at very small expense
Samuel Johnson
Criticism is prejudice made plausible.
Henry Louis Mencken
I have never believed that the critic is the rival of the poet, but I do believe that criticism is a genre of literature or it does not exist.
Harold Bloom
The most noble criticism is that in which the critic is not the antagonist so much as the rival of the author
Benjamin Disraeli
Criticism is a study by which men grow important and formidable at very small expense. He whom nature has made weak, and idleness keeps ignorant, may yet support his vanity by the name of a critic.
Samuel Johnson
Criticism, as it was first instituted by Aristotle, was meant as a standard of judging well; the chiefest part of which is to observe those excellencies which delight a reasonable reader
John Dryden
Criticism is a misconception: we must read not to understand others but to understand ourselves.
Emile M. Cioran
Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man's growth without destroying his roots.
Frank A. Clark
Criticism is something we can avoid easily by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing
Aristotle
Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.
Winston Churchill
What distinguishes modern art from the art of other ages is criticism.
Octavio Paz