“A good drama critic is one who perceives what is happening in the theatre of his time. A great drama critic also perceives what is not happening.”

But the Wise Perceive Things about to Happen http://www.cavafy.com/poems/content.asp?id=128&cat=1
Collected Poems (1992)
Context: Of what’s to come the wise perceive
things about to happen. Sometimes during moments of intense study
their hearing’s troubled: the hidden sound
of things approaching reaches them,
and they listen reverently, while in the street outside
the people hear nothing whatsoever.

As quoted in Theater Week (1988); also in The Book of Poisonous Quotes (1993) edited by Colin Jarman, p. 100

The Adventures of Sally (1922)

Vol. II, p. 69
Mark Twain's Autobiography (1924)

Quotes 1990s, 1990-1994, Noam Chomsky: A Life of Dissent, 1992
Context: I never criticized United States planners for mistakes in Vietnam. True, they made some mistakes, but my criticism was always aimed at what they aimed to do and largely achieved. The Russians doubtless made mistakes in Afghanistan, but my condemnation of their aggression and atrocities never mentioned those mistakes, which are irrelevant to the matter -- though not for the commissars. Within our ideological system, it is impossible to perceive that anyone might criticize anything but "mistakes" (I suspect that totalitarian Russia was more open in that regard).

Source: Burning All Illusions (1996), p. 6

Part 1, section 2.
Murther and Walking Spirits (1991)

Source: An Introduction to English Poetry (2002), Ch. 22: Poetic Drama and Opera (p. 125)