“Criticism is easy, and art is difficult.”

— Philippe Néricault Destouches

La critique est aisée, et l'art est difficile.
Glorieux, II, 5, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 150.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Criticism is easy, and art is difficult." by Philippe Néricault Destouches?

Philippe Néricault Destouches photo

Philippe Néricault Destouches3

French playwright 1680–1754

Related quotes

“I regard criticism as an art, and if in this country and in this age it is practiced with honesty, it is no more remunerative than the work of an avant-garde film artist. My dear anonymous letter writers, if you think it is so easy to be a critic, so difficult to be a poet or a painter or film experimenter, may I suggest you try both? You may discover why there are so few critics, so many poets.”

Pauline Kael (1919–2001) American film critic

"Replying to Listeners" http://www.paulrossen.com/paulinekael/replylisteners.html, broadcast on KPFA (January 1963).

“It is easy for us to criticize the prejudices of our grandfathers, from which our fathers freed themselves. It is more difficult to search for prejudices among the beliefs and values that we hold.”

Peter Singer book Practical Ethics

Source: Practical Ethics, 3rd Edition (2011), Ch. 3: Equality for Animals? (p. 49)

“The main trouble with avant-garde art and literature, from the point of view of fascists and Stalinists, is not that they are too critical, but that they are too "innocent," that it is too difficult to inject effective propaganda, that kitsch is more pliable to this end.”

Clement Greenberg (1909–1994) American writer and artist

"Avant-Garde and Kitsch" http://www.sharecom.ca/greenberg/kitsch.html (1939), p. 19 <br class="br">1960s, Art and Culture: Critical Essays, (1961)

“There is no more difficult art to acquire than the art of observation, and for some men it is quite as difficult to record an observation in brief and plain language.”

William Osler (1849–1919) Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospi…

On the Educational Value of the Medical Society (1903), p. 333

“I don’t listen to what art critics say. I don’t know anybody who needs a critic to find out what art is.”

Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988) American artist

“.. poor art for poor people [his critic on social realism art in America]”

Arshile Gorky (1904–1948) Armenian-American painter

Source: posthumous, Astract Expressionist Painting in America, p. 6

“For it is easy to criticize and break down the spirit of others, but to know yourself takes a lifetime.”

Bruce Lee (1940–1973) Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and filmmaker

Source: Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living

“In dealing with Mr. Nixon, it is not easy to be unfair. He invites and justifies all available criticism.”

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) American economist and diplomat

Source: Money: Whence It Came, Where It Went (1975), Chapter XX, Where It Went, p. 285

“A public that tries to do without criticism, and asserts that it knows what it wants or likes, brutalizes the arts and loses its cultural memory. Art for art's sake is a retreat from criticism which ends in an impoverishment of civilized life itself.”

Northrop Frye book Anatomy of Criticism

Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays (1957), Polemical Introduction

“In the arts, the critic is the only independent source of information. The rest is advertising.”

Pauline Kael (1919–2001) American film critic

Newsweek (1973-12-24).

Related topics