Quotes about critic
page 23

“Everything has something to undermine it, and every blessing has something to diminish it. The thing that undermines this religion and diminishes this blessing is those who criticize a great deal and those who stab in the back; they show you what you want to see and they conceal that which you dislike. They are wicked like ostiches.”

Uthman (574–656) Companion of Muhammad and third Rashidun Caliph

Majma' al-Amthal by al-Madai'ni, Vol. 20, p. 453

Religion

“My administration has taken the most aggressive action in modern history to prevent the spread of this illness in the United States. We are ready. We are ready. Totally ready. On January 31st, I ordered the suspension of foreign nationals who have recently been in China from entering the United States. An action which the Democrats loudly criticized and protested and now everybody’s complimenting me saying, “Thank you very much. You were 100% correct.””

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

Could’ve been a whole different story. But I say, so let’s get this right. A virus starts in China, bleeds its way into various countries all around the world, doesn’t spread widely at all in the United States because of the early actions that myself and my administration took against a lot of other wishes, and the Democrats’ single talking point, and you see it, is that it’s Donald Trump’s fault, right? It’s Donald Trump’s fault. No, just things that happened.
2020s, 2020, February, Donald Trump Charleston, South Carolina Rally (February 28, 2020)

History

“The most important feature of the previous ban was the prohibition on large-capacity ammunition magazines. A large magazine is arguably the most critical feature of an assault weapon, and restrictions on magazines have the potential to affect many more gun crimes than do those on military-style weapons. Restrictions focused on magazine capacity may also have a greater chance of gaining sufficient public and political support for passage than would new restrictions on assault weapons, though current polling suggests that both measures are supported by three-quarters of non-gun owners and nearly half of gun owners.”

Christopher S. Koper American sociologist

[Koper, Christopher S., w:Christopher S. Koper, America’s experience with the federal assault weapons ban, 1994–2004, Reducing Gun Violence, 2013, 168, 9781421411101, http://www.uiw.edu/library/documents/reducing_gun_violence_in_america.pdf]

Support, Chance

“It doesn’t say rest on your laurels, but to keep on pushing. In this work, sometimes you get heavy criticism. People do say ugly things, ‘You just want money.’ I just want other people to have health care. You know, Jesus healed everybody and never charged a co-pay.”

William Barber II (1963) civil rights leader from North Carolina

Quoted in Closest person we have to Martin Luther King Jr.: Pastor-activist William J. Barber wins $625,000 ‘genius’ grant https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2018/10/05/closest-person-we-have-martin-luther-king-jr-pastor-activist-william-j-barber-wins-genius-grant/, Washington Post, (5 October 2018)

Money, People, Health

“The Aquarian Conspiracy is also working to ease hunger—for meaning, connection, completion. And each of us is "the whole project," the nucleus of a critical mass, a steward of the world's transformation.”

Marilyn Ferguson (1938–2008) American writer

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Thirteen, The Whole- Earth Conspiracy

Hunger, World

“I was left with a great idea gutted by critical examination. But that's good. That's how we make ideas better—by trying to poke holes in them and then finding ways to fix the holes.”

Greg Craven American teacher and writer

Source: What's the Worst That Could Happen?: A Rational Response to the Climate Change Debate (2009), Chapter 1 "The Decision Grid" (p. 31)

Making love, Way, Idea

“Anybody can criticize me, except for foreigners.”

Rodrigo Duterte (1945) Filipino politician and the 16th President of the Philippines

The Manila Times, Duterte: ‘Anybody can criticize me, except foreigners’ https://www.manilatimes.net/2018/05/03/news/latest-stories/duterte-anybody-can-criticize-me-except-foreigners/396588/ (May 2018) On criticism

“Do not hesistate to attack me, criticize me, if I do wrong in my job. It is your duty.”

Rodrigo Duterte (1945) Filipino politician and the 16th President of the Philippines

Philstar, Duterte to media: You can criticize me as long as it’s true https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2016/09/11/1622603/duterte-media-you-can-criticize-me-long-its-true (September 2016) On criticism

“New York Times… Asshole, asshole. You cannot even criticize your own mistake. Invading a country, making up excuses before the world that is not true, then you have the gall to say stop. You better stop your publishing.”

Rodrigo Duterte (1945) Filipino politician and the 16th President of the Philippines

Duterte to New York Times: ‘You better stop your publishing’ https://globalnation.inquirer.net/155506/duterte-new-york-times-better-stop-publishing Targeted remarks to personalities and institutions

World, Making love, Time, Country

“TIT FOR TAT is collectively stable if and only if, w is large enough. This critical value of w is a function of the four payoff parameters, T; R, P, and S.”

Robert Axelrod The evolution of cooperation

Chap. 3 : The Chronology of Cooperation
Proposition 2.
The Evolution of Cooperation (1984; 2006)

“I need hardly say that I agree with almost every word of my critics. I have repeatedly dwelt on the entirely hypothetical character of the dates I ventured to assign to the first three periods of Vedic literature. All I have claimed for them has been that they are minimum dates”

Max Müller (1823–1900) German-born philologist and orientalist

Max Muller. (Preface to the text of the Rigveda, Vol.4, p.xiii). Quoted in https://talageri.blogspot.com/2016/07/the-recorded-history-of-indo-european_27.html

Literature

“Some days will be sublime. Others will be merely wonderful. But critically, there will be one particular texture ("what it feels like") of consciousness that will be missing from our lives; and that will be the texture of nastiness.”

David Pearce (philosopher) (1959) British transhumanist

" Feeling Groovy, Forever https://ieet.org/index.php/IEET2/more/sirius20120314", Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, 14 Mar. 2012

Feeling

“The goal of our criticism should be solidarity, not homogeneity.”

Peter Gelderloos (1982) American anarchist

Source: "The Failure of Nonviolence" (2013) https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/peter-gelderloos-the-failure-of-nonviolence, Chapter 1. Violence Doesn't Exist

“We can never know whether our analysis and our methods are wrong, except sometimes with hindsight. Our movements are stronger when they employ diverse methods and analyses and these different positions criticize one another.”

Peter Gelderloos (1982) American anarchist

Introduction: Nonviolence has lost the debate "The Failure of Nonviolence" (2013) https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/peter-gelderloos-the-failure-of-nonviolence

“This premise -- that technology only came to promote progress -- puts us in great danger since there is no questioning of its functionality, problem-solving, advantages and disadvantages. Without consciousness of the use of digital technologies, we end up being cast in a way that is imposed on us. Having a critical approach is necessary to shape the technologies to respect our culture, customs and needs.”

David Nemer

(p. 48)
Favela Digital- The other side of technology. (2013)

Way, Question, Problem

“The second reason I focus on capitalism is that the responses to today's economic collapse by Trump, the GOP and most Democrats carefully avoid any criticism of capitalism. They all debate the virus, China, foreigners, other politicians, but never the system they all serve. When Trump and others press people to return to churches and jobs—despite risking their and others' lives—they place reviving a collapsed capitalism ahead of public health.”

Richard D. Wolff (1942) American economist

COVID-19 and the Failures of Capitalism (2020)

People, Health

“In the light of the coronavirus pandemic, I focus criticism on capitalism and the vulnerabilities it has accumulated for several reasons. Viruses are part of nature. They have attacked human beings—sometimes dangerously—in both distant and recent history. In 1918, the Spanish Flu killed nearly 700,000 in the United States and millions elsewhere. Recent viruses include SARS, MERS and Ebola. What matters to public health is each society's preparedness: stockpiled tests, masks, ventilators, hospital beds, trained personnel, etc., to manage dangerous viruses. In the U.S., such objects are produced by private capitalist enterprises whose goal is profit. It was not profitable to produce and stockpile such products, that was not and still is not being done. Nor did the U.S. government produce or stockpile those medical products. Top U.S. government personnel privilege private capitalism; it is their primary objective to protect and strengthen. The result is that neither private capitalism nor the U.S. government performed the most basic duty of any economic system: to protect and maintain public health and safety. U.S. capitalism's response to the coronavirus pandemic continues to be what it has been since December 2019: too little, too late. It failed. It is the problem.”

Richard D. Wolff (1942) American economist

COVID-19 and the Failures of Capitalism (2020)

Health, History, Nature, Problem

“In God’s eyes – listen – no one is a victim. We are all perpetrators of open rebellion, scandalous, blasphemous sin against God. We are all rebels, we are all obstinate, we are all stubborn... Here we have the critical fundamental principle of the gospel; no one is a victim. From God’s viewpoint, no one is a victim.”

John F. MacArthur (1939) American pastor and author

"Social Justice and the Gospel, Part 1" https://statementonsocialjustice.com/videos/social-justice-and-the-gospel-part-1/ (August 2018), SJ&G 2010s

God

“[T]he bond which united them, if their critics were to be believed, might be a tranquil consciousness of effortless superiority.”

H. H. Asquith (1852–1928) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Remarks to a dinner given to Asquith in the House of Commons by MPs who had graduated from Balliol College (22 July 1908), quoted in The Times (23 July 1908), p. 12
Prime Minister

“There is a resemblance between Nazism and political Islam. The same fears that existed in the 30s exist today. When people criticize Islamism, there is a screed of lead that imposes on them without forgetting to emphasize the key role of the collaborators.”

Waleed Al-Husseini (1989) Palestinian essayist and writer

People, Fear, Forgetting

“We (China) are still at a very critical stage in fighting the (2019-nCoV) Coronavirus. International solidarity is extremely important and for that purpose all countries should behave in a responsible manner.”

Zhang Jun (1960) Chinese ambassador

Zhang Jun (2020) cited in " China virus death toll rises to at least 212 as WHO declares global emergency https://www.thestar.com.my/news/regional/2020/01/31/china-virus-death-toll-rises-to-at-least-212-as-who-declares-global-emergency" on The Star Online, 31 January 2020.

Fight, Country

“My novels are what is known as popular and sell very well, but I am not a critic’s favourite, indeed I am generally dismissed with a sneer as a bestseller and not reviewed at all.”

Daphne du Maurier (1907–1989) British writer

On how her novels are typically received by critics (as quoted in “Why Daphne du Maurier was Britain’s mistress of suspense” http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20170609-why-daphne-du-maurier-was-britains-mistress-of-suspense in The Guardian; 2017 Jun 13)

“Some think that we are approaching a critical moment in the history of Liberalism. ... We hear of a divergence of old Liberalism and new. ... The terrible new school, we hear, are for beginning operations by dethroning Gladstonian finance. They are for laying hands on the sacred ark. But did any one suppose that the fiscal structure which was reared in 1853 was to last for ever, incapable of improvement, and guaranteed to need no repair? ... Another heresy is imputed to this new school which fixes a deep gulf between the wicked new Liberals and the virtuous old. We are adjured to try freedom first before we try interference of the State. That is a captivating formula, but it puzzles me to find that the eminent statesman who urges us to lay this lesson to heart is strongly in favour of maintaining the control of the State over the Church? But is State interference an innovation? I thought that for 30 years past Liberals had been as much in favour as other people of this protective legislation. ... [O]ther countries have tried freedom and it is just because we have decided that freedom in such a case is only a fine name for neglect, and have tried State supervision, that we have saved our industrial population from the waste, destruction, destitution, and degradation that would otherwise have overtaken them. ... In short, gentlemen, I am not prepared to allow that the Liberty and the Property Defence League are the only people with a real grasp of Liberal principles, that Lord Bramwell and the Earl of Wemyss are the only Abdiels of the Liberal Party.”

John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn (1838–1923) British Liberal statesman, writer and newspaper editor

Annual presidential address to the Junior Liberal Association of Glasgow (10 February 1885), quoted in 'Mr. John Morley At Glasgow', The Times (11 February 1885), p. 10
1880s

People, School, History, Thinking

“Between our fear of failure
And our ultimate potential
We are called to action,
A line must be drawn.

Commit to Realization
And experimentation,
Stay centered in the Uncreated
Source of Creation,
Leave the critics behind.

Let Love draw the line.”

Alex Grey (1953) American artist

Art Psalms (2008), Let Love Draw the Line

Love, Fear, Making love, Failure

“Are democratic governments accountable to the people who elected them? And, critically, is the public in democratic countries responsible for the actions...?”

Arundhati Roy (1961) Indian novelist, essayist

Arundhati Roy: Tide? Or Ivory Snow? Public Power in the Age of Empire, Speech, San Francisco, California https://www.democracynow.org/2004/8/23/public_power_in_the_age_of (16 August 2004) Speeches

People, Country

“Recently, those who have criticized the actions of the U.S. government... have been called “anti-American.””

Arundhati Roy (1961) Indian novelist, essayist

..The term “anti-American” is usually used by the American establishment to discredit...its critics. Once someone is branded anti-American, the chances are that he or she will be judged before they are heard, and the argument will be lost in the welter of bruised national pride. But what does the term “anti-American” mean? Does it mean you are anti-jazz? Or... opposed to freedom of speech?...That you have a quarrel with giant sequoias? Does it mean that you don’t admire the hundreds of thousands of American citizens who marched against nuclear weapons, or the thousands... who forced their government to withdraw from Vietnam? Does it mean that you hate all Americans? This sly conflation of America’s culture, music, literature, the breathtaking physical beauty of the land, the ordinary pleasures of ordinary people with criticism of the U.S. government’s foreign policy (about which, thanks to America’s “free press”, sadly most Americans know very little) is... extremely effective strategy. To call someone “anti-American”, indeed to be anti-American, (or for that matter, anti-Indian or anti-Timbuktuan) is not just racist, it’s a failure of the imagination. An inability to see the world in terms other than those the establishment has set out for you... If you don’t love us, you hate us... If you’re not with us, you’re with the terrorists. Come September, given at the Lensic Performing Arts Center, Santa Fe, NM, USA http://ada.evergreen.edu/~arunc/texts/politics/comeSeptember.pdf (29 Sep 2002). Speeches

“I think the “young adult” age is such a critical period of our lives. Young adults are still young enough to dream of magic and possibility, yet old enough to think for themselves and to begin to make real change in the world.”

Stacey Lee

On why young adult literature is so important in “Safer Is Not Always Better: An Interview With Stacey Lee” https://parnassusmusing.net/2019/08/13/interview-stacey-lee-downstairs-girl/ in Musing (2019 Aug 13)

Age, World, Making love, Dreams

“One critic called me one of the most magnificent resources Canada has allowed to escape to the United States. Because I was born and raised in Vancouver and lived up there until I was 17. My kids sons Bruce and Michael are, of course, American citizens. But not me. I defiantly refuse to change.”

Yvonne De Carlo (1922–2007) Canadian-American actress, dancer, and singer

As quoted in "A girl no longer, but . . . De Carlo's a beauty still" (1975)

Change

“Human beings face ever more complex and urgent problems, and their effectiveness in dealing with these problems is a matter that is critical to the stability and continued progress of society”

Douglas Engelbart (1925–2013) American engineer and inventor

Source: Program On Human Effectiveness, 1996, https://web.stanford.edu/dept/SUL/library/extra4/sloan/mousesite/Archive/Post68/PrHumanEffectiveness.html

Problem

“Any possibility for improving the effective utilization of the intellectual power of society’s problem solvers warrants the most serious consideration. This is because man’s problem-solving capability represents possibly the most important resource possessed by a society. The other contenders for first importance are all critically dependent for their development and use upon this resource.”

Douglas Engelbart (1925–2013) American engineer and inventor

Source: https://www.dougengelbart.org/content/view/138

Problem, Dependency

“If you attend a study session, only behave like a man wishing to expand his knowledge and seeking a higher reward from God. Do not act like a man content with what he holds, who is waiting for a weakness (from someone) to criticize (it or him), or an oddity to raise. This will be acting like vile people who have never mastered science.’ ‘If you attend with good intentions you will obtain the best results. Otherwise just stay at home, awarding yourself rest, a good morality, and a salutary outcome in front of God.”

Ibn Hazm (994–1064) Arab theologian

ibid, 114

God, People, Home, Knowledge

“There are some directors who actually fear the possible success of music. They fear that the audience or the critics will think the film has worked because there was a very good music score.”

Ennio Morricone (1928–2020) Italian composer, orchestrator and conductor

Fear, Music, Thinking, Success

“I come now to the question of diplomatic personnel. ... It is said that I am admitting to the service Eton and Harrow. I am not one of those who decry Eton and Harrow. I was very glad of them in the Battle of Britain—by God, I was!—those fellows paid the price in the Royal Air Force on those fatal days. If the Universities are to be criticized, well, put up a vote of censure on Harold Laski, because it is the product of the Universities I have got to accept.”

Ernest Bevin (1881–1951) British labour leader, politician, and statesman

Speech to the Labour Party Conference in Bournemouth (12 June 1946), quoted in British Information Services, British Speeches of the Day, Vol. IV (1946), pp. 423-424

God, Question, Universe

“I write from my soul. This is the reason that critics don’t hurt me, because it is me. If it was not me, if I was pretending to be someone else, then this could unbalance my world, but I know who I am.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

World, Soul, Hurt

“Appreciate the magnificent brain you possess. Protect and nurture it. Strive to be a good skeptic and critical thinker so that fewer hours of your precious life will be squandered on dead-end beliefs. Always try to think like a scientist so that you might better know truth from fiction.”

Guy P. Harrison (1963) American skeptic author

Life, Truth, Thinking, Dead

“Critical thinking is the indispensable skill for smart living in modern society, and skepticism is the essential posture for the fully awake twenty-first-century human being.”

Guy P. Harrison (1963) American skeptic author

Thinking

“To silence criticism is to silence freedom.”

Sidney Hook (1902–1989) American philosopher

New York Times Magazine (30 September 1951)

Freedom, Silence

“I think we should be snorkeling and swimming on reefs. Because I think people only develop a passion for protecting things if they know what is at risk. I would hardly be one to say that we shouldn’t go near them. That said, its important to manage tourism properly. If you have a lot of people going onto reefs, stepping on reefs, collecting things from reefs, breaking corals off, or throwing anchors on top of reefs, that’s not good. It’s important to properly manage the numbers of people and their behavior when they’re in water. It’s also important to make sure that the hotels that support that tourism have good water treatment for the sewage that they release, and that they aren’t also feeding this large population of visitors critically important reef fish. That is ecologically sound tourism. But you can’t just let it develop willy-nilly. It has to be managed carefully. Otherwise, you end up with lots of people and not much reef.”

Nancy Knowlton (1949) American biologist

Source: Nancy Knowlton https://web.archive.org/web/20081008104046/http://www.smithsonianmag.com:80/specialsections/ocean-hall/atm-qa-200809.html (September 2008)

People, Making love, Behavior, Support

“Intuition is a comprehensive grip of the principle of universality, and when it is functioning there is, momentarily at least, a complete loss of the sense of separateness. At its highest point, it is known as that Universal Love which has no relation to sentiment or to the affectional reaction but is, predominantly, in the nature of an identification with all beings. Then is true compassion known; then does criticism become impossible; then, only, is the divine germ seen as latent in all forms.”

Alice A. Bailey (1880–1949) esoteric, theosophist, writer

Source: Glamour: A World Problem (1950), Certain Preliminary Clarifications

Love, Making love, Nature, Sense

“The pursuit of critical consciousness, the pursuit of social justice through a critical enlightenment, can also be settler moves to innocence - diversions, distractions, which relieve the settler of feelings of guilt or responsibility, and conceal the need to give up land or power or privilege.”

Eve Tuck Indigenous studies scholar

Source: "Decolonization is Not a Metaphor", p. 21

Justice, Feeling

“A true student is like a sponge. Absorbing what goes on around him, filtering it, latching on to what he can hold. A student is self-critical and self-motivated, always trying to improve his understanding so that he can move on to the next topic, the next challenge. A real student is also his own teacher and his own critic. There is no room for ego there.”

Ryan Holiday book Ego Is the Enemy

Motivation, Understanding, Teachers, Self-confidence

“So when you reduce bigotry to a caricature of pure hatred you obscure that bigotry is a deeply human problem. Sometimes people criticize me for empathizing with bigots but I believe that understanding bigots is the best defense against becoming one yourself because when you dehumanize the villains you become unable to recognize the villain within.”

Natalie Wynn ContraPoints

ContraPoints

People, Understanding, Problem

“Simply put, when you invite people’s best thinking and lead like a multiplier, your team will give you more—more discretionary effort, more mental and physical energy, and more of the fresh ideas critical for long-term success.”

Greg McKeown (author) book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

Popular Quotes, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, Journal Articles

People, Idea, Thinking, Effort

“What puzzles me most is your criticism that he showed 'no sense of engagement.”

E.M. Forster (1879–1970) English novelist

I haven't met the expression before, and feel bound to comment on its totalitarian tang. Engagement not with the truth as the speaker apprehends it, but with the alleged opinion of the majority of listeners.
Letter 400, to John Morris, 12 January 1953
Selected Letters (1983-1985)

Sense

“It is supposed that there has been progress in the science of textual criticism, and the most frivolous pretender has learned to talk superciliously about "the old unscientific days."”

A.E. Housman (1859–1936) English classical scholar and poet

The old unscientific days are everlasting; they are here and now; they are renewed perennially by the ear which takes formulas in, and the tongue which gives them out again, and the mind which meanwhile is empty of reflexion and stuffed with self-complacency.
"The Application of Thought to Textual Criticism", a lecture delivered on August 4, 1921

Learning, Science

“We will maintain our stand despite criticisms.”

Frank Bainimarama (1954) Prime Minister of Fiji

(on being told by Downer that the international community would not be happy about the Military's intervention in the political arena).
2000, Reaction to calls from Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer for the Military to stay out of politics (30 September 2005)

“People always criticize. If they want to, they will find something to criticize. Hey, we all criticize. You like a film or you don’t. It’s up to you. You can’t stop that anyway. That’s part of human nature”

Nancy Kwan (1939) Chinese-American actress and restauranter

How Nancy Kwan Went From Ballet to the Big Screen https://www.shondaland.com/live/a22986681/nancy-kwan-interview/ (September 11, 2018)

People, Nature, Parting

“Make it your habit not to be critical about small things.”

Edward Everett Hale (1822–1909) American author and Unitarian clergyman

“It is easy to criticize the "fanaticism" of our ancestors when one has lost the very notion of saving truth, or to be "tolerant" when one derides religion.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

[2006, Light on the Ancient Worlds, World Wisdom, 9, 978-0-941532-72-3]
Miscellaneous, Modernity

Truth, Religion

“Making critical thinking a national educational norm is the cognitive vaccine America needs to have a fighting chance of maintaining sufficient sanity. Good thinking prevents and alleviates bad thinking.”

Guy P. Harrison (1963) American skeptic author

Education, Thinking, Chance, Fight

“We won’t have a president that threatens people with jail for just criticizing him”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

On the campaign trail for Joe Biden in [ Obama Hits Campaign Trail In South Florida, Criticizing Trump's Behavior As Worse Than Florida Man https://www.wlrn.org/2020-10-25/obama-hits-campaign-trail-in-south-florida-criticizing-trumps-behavior-as-worse-than-florida-man October 25, 2020 2020, October 2020

People

“While the whole world is attracted and distracted by unnecessary criticism, music writes history.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Mentre il mondo intero è attratto e distratto da critiche inutili, la musica scrive la storia.
Source: prevale.net

World, Music, History

“Criticizing without having the slightest competence on a subject is the first sign of a person's immaturity.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Criticare senza avere la minima competenza su un argomento è il primo segno di immaturità di una persona.
Source: prevale.net

Personality

“Armed with Marxist-Leninist theory and ideology, the Communist Party of China has brought a new style of work to the Chinese people, a style of work that essentially entails integrating theory with practice, forging close links with the masses and practicing self-criticism.”

Mao Zedong book On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People

(zh-CN) 以马克思列宁主义的理论思想武装起来的中国共产党，在中国人民中产生了新的工作作风，这主要的就是理论和实践相结合的作风，和人民群众紧密地联系在一起的作风以及自我批评的作风。
1950s, On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People (1957)

People

“Criticism and self-criticism is a kind of method. It is a method of resolving contradictions among the people and it is the only method.”

Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China

Talk at an Enlarged Central Work Conference (30 January 1962)
1960s
Original: (zh-CN) 批评和自我批评是一种方法，是解决人民内部矛盾的方法，而且是唯一的方法。

People

“The major downside of democracy is that even the least critical minds will never think they are wrong.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Democracy, Thinking

“To be successful, you must develop a bold mindset. Don't be afraid of criticism.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Success

“Criticism and prophecy must be the two categories that meet in the salvation of the past”

Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) German literary critic, philosopher and social critic (1892-1940)

Source: Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspiels [Origin of the German Mourning Play] (1925), p. 53-54 (trans. John Osborne (London: Verso, 1977)

Past

“Critics generally come to be critics by reason not of their fitness for this but of their unfitness for anything else. Books should be tried by a judge and jury as though they were crimes, and counsel should be heard on both sides.”

Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist

Criticism
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part VII - On the Making of Music, Pictures, and Books

Books

“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

Life, Art, Memory

“NATO's failure to seriously examine its own role in what it euphemistically calls "uncertain times" should be more alarming to Americans and Europeans than its one-sided criticisms of Russia and China, whose contributions to the uncertainty of our times pale by comparison.”

Medea Benjamin (1952) American political activist and author

Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies, What Planet Is NATO Living On? It's No Longer Useful to This One Salon https://www.salon.com/2021/02/25/what-planet-is-nato-living-on-because-its-no-longer-useful-on-this-one/, (24 February 2021)

Failure, Time

“It is a man’s world and to fight back we have to develop a very thick skin. Take criticism very constructively, but at the same time fight back and retain your position.”

Tina Dabi (1993) Indian Administrative Service Officer

Quoted in Hindustan times https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/it-s-a-man-s-world-but-fight-back-upsc-topper-tina-dabi-tells-students/story-L4OLccQbYi5tdbM8GNMECO.html

World, Time, Fight

“How can I accept a doctrine which sets up as its bible, above and beyond criticism, an obsolete economic textbook which I know to be not only scientifically erroneous but without interest or application for the modern world?”

John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) British economist

Source: Laissez-faire and Communism (1926), pp. 99

World

“Critics, you have been so kind,
I would not have you think me blind
To all the wisdom that you preach;
Yet before I strictlier run
In straiter lines of chiselled speech,
Give me one more hour, just one
Hour to hunt the fairy gleam
That flutters through this childish dream.”

Alfred Noyes (1880–1958) English poet

Apologia
The Flower of Old Japan and Other Poems (1907), Forest of Wild Thyme

Wisdom, Dreams, Thinking

“If they want to write about me in a good way, they should write how I do things that are useful. If they want to criticize me, I don't care, I don't mind. But they must criticize me fairly. Usually the criticism is not fair. Or the praise, even the praise sometimes is not fair.”

Bhumibol Adulyadej (1927–2016) King of Thailand

Source: "King Bhumibol's Reign" in The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/21/magazine/king-bhumibol-s-reign.html (21 May 1989)

Way

“The growth of the creator economy has accelerated much faster than I ever could have dreamed of when we began this journey eight years ago. We are at a critical inflection point and I’m excited to partner closely with Tiffany to scale our teams to power our next phase of growth.”

Jack Conte (1984) American musician and entrepreneur

Source: Patreon chief: IPO “on the table” but not all creators will benefit https://www.verdict.co.uk/patreon-ipo/ (October 22, 2021)

Dreams

“To carry on the great revolutionary alliance, all organizations should conduct more self-criticisms, and conduct more investigations and studies and self-criticisms in one's own organization. This would facilitate the alliance. Otherwise, the enemy can easily exploit our weaknesses.”

Jiang Qing (1914–1991) Chinese political figure and wife of Mao Zedong

Source: Talk at the Peking Forum on Literature and Art (9 and 12 November 1967)

Study

“Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who that it's naming.’
For the loser now will be later to win”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Source: Song lyrics, The Times They Are A-Changin' (1964), The Times They Are A-Changin

Chance

“I speak in general. I think that Putin does not understand that criticizing power can help this power. How do we fight corruption in the United States? There are two forces - independent media and powerful opposition party.”

Michael McFaul (1963) American academic and diplomat

"Izvestia Interview with Michael McFaul" in Carnegie Endowment for World Peace https://carnegieendowment.org/2002/05/15/izvestia-interview-with-michael-mcfaul-pub-984 (15 May 2002)

Understanding, Thinking, Help, Fight

“It is important for the Supreme Court itself to engage in self-criticism, self-awareness, self-assessment to address the loss of confidence of the people in the Supreme Court. That is where our salvation lies.”

Folake Solanke (1932) Nigerian lawyer

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6lqx-jLCac Folake Solanke speaks on the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

People, Confidence, Loss

“You shouldn’t be so critical. Some people like this kind of thing, you know.”

George Alec Effinger (1947–2002) Novelist, short story writer

Source: Relatives (1973)., Chapter 13 (p. 199).

People

“By the way, what have you done that's so great? Do you create anything, or just criticize others work and belittle their motivations?”

Steve Jobs (1955–2011) American entrepreneur and co-founder of Apple Inc.

Source: Republished email to Gawker's Ryan Tate, May 2010 https://web.archive.org/web/20100919141354/http://gawker.com/5539717/

Way, Motivation

“The basic ideological programme of the great proletarian Cultural Revolution is 'to combat selfishness and criticize revisionism.'”

Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China

Source: Directives on the Cultural Revolution (1966-1972)

Selfishness

“Too many people’s careers are ruined by praise instead of propelled by criticism.”

Jay Samit (1961) American businessman

Future Proofing You (2021)

People

“School trains children to be employees and consumers; teach your own to be leaders and adventurers. School trains children to obey reflexively; teach your own to think critically and independently.”

John Taylor Gatto (1935–2018) American teacher, book author

Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling (2008)
Source: Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling, New Society Publishers (2013) p. xxii

Children, School, Thinking, Training

“The most generous of critics, if he is to be discriminating and just, cannot, let me say again, allow that any verse which is profoundly obscure or utterly unmusical, no matter how intellectual in substance, deserves the appellation of poetry. But on a very thin thread of meaning poetry, or a very fair imitation of it, may be hung by the aid of musical sound.”

Alfred Austin (1835–1913) British writer and poet

Source: The Bridling of Pegasus (1910), "The Essentials of Great Poetry", p. 7.

Music

“Collaborations are unnatural. The writer is a jealous god. He builds his universe without interference. He resents the carping of mentally deficient critics, and the editor’s capricious demands for revisions. Let two writers try to make one universe, and their defenses get in the way.”

Larry Niven book N-Space

Building the Mote in God’s Eye (with Jerry Pournelle) (p. 442)
Short fiction, N-Space (1990)

God, Way, Universe

“Charging individuals who disagree with the above-mentioned principles with kulak tendencies – is aimless abstract criticism. This criticism is aimed at undermining the unity of the peasants' front.”

Kyūichi Tokuda (1894–1953) Japanese politician

New Situation and the Policy of the Communist Party of Japan (1950)

“I'm good at being self-critical. I've also been told that I'm good at taking up new sports. I'm a fast learner and pick things up very quickly.”

Benedict Cumberbatch (1976) English actor and film producer

"The 5-minute Interview: Benedict Cumberbatch, Actor" in The Independent https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/the-5minute-interview-benedict-cumberbatch-actor-779150.html (7 February 2008)

Sport

“They wouldn’t criticize you if they didn’t feel threatened..”

Ron English (1959) American artist

Ron English's Fauxlosophy: Volume 2 (2022)

Feeling

“Very often we (cosplayers) are subject to harsh criticism when we do not look similar enough to movie or anime characters, and body-shaming is very commonly experienced by many cosplayers. I got a comment saying 'I'm too fat for Jinx.'”

Rikka Blurhound Malaysian cosplayer and nutritionist

Rikka Blurhound (2022) cited in " Malaysian Cosplayer Shares Her Painful But Passionate Journey Cosplaying Over The Years https://says.com/my/lifestyle/malaysian-cosplayer-badass-transformation-from-nutritionist-to-arcane-jinx" on SAYS, 13 April 2022.

Animals

“All those who are not criticized, err. Those who are not watched, abuse. Those who are spoiled, become fat. Those who are applauded, are puffed up. A true superiority of spirit is needed to save oneself from those consequences.”

Daniel Salamanca (1863–1935) President of Bolivia (1863-1935)

“Behavior is imitated, then abstracted into play, formalized into drama and story, crystallized into myth and codified into religion—and only then criticized in philosophy, and provided, post-hoc, with rational underpinnings.”

Jordan Peterson book Maps of Meaning

Source: Books, Maps of Meaning (1999), p. 78

Religion, Behavior

“Since shipping and logistics are such a critical part of the fashion industry, it is important to highlight the option of green logistics solutions, which help minimize environmental damages and reduce transport-related emissions.”

Jessica Minh Anh (1988) Vietnamese model

Jessica Minh Anh (2020) cited in: " DHL put on a fashion show on the tarmac at New York's JFK Airport right in front of a Boeing 767 cargo plane https://www.businessinsider.com/dhl-fashion-show-at-jfk-airport-for-sustainability-logistics-2020-2" in Business Insider, 12 February 2020.

Fashion, Help, Parting

“I grew up in a world where there was no warmth - not from my parents, not from my friends or teachers. I felt somehow superfluous, forever in the way, an object of criticism.”

Vladimir Zhirinovsky (1946–2022) Russian politician and political activist

"OBITUARY Vladimir Zhirinovsky, dark showman of the Russian far right" in Reuters https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/obituary-vladimir-zhirinovsky-dark-showman-russian-far-right-2022-04-06/

World, Way, Parent, Teachers

“Oil is the world's most critical resource. Without it, nothing works in industrial civilization as currently configured. Few people dispute the idea that the world will eventually run out of oil, and there is a broad recognition that it will happen [...].”

James Howard Kunstler book The Long Emergency

Source: The Long Emergency (2005), Chapter 3, p. 64.

People, World, Idea

“The real concern of anti-diversity warriors is not with the introduction of politics but with the wrong kind of politics. They want literature to serve a very political function indeed: to sustain, not criticize, the status quo.”

Elizabeth Martinez (1925) American community organizer, activist, author, and educator

De Colores Means All of Us: Latina Views for a Multi-Colored Century (2017)

Literature

“Gender equality is critical for the development and peace of every nation.”

Kofi Annan (1938–2018) 7th Secretary-General of the United Nations

Quoted in: Kabir, Hajara Muhammad (2010). Northern women development. [Nigeria]. ISBN 978-978-906-469-4. OCLC 890820657.

Peace

“Illegal aliens have destroyed some of the most critical monarch butterfly habitats in the world. I bet you didn’t know that.”

Matt Gaetz (1982) American politician and member of the United States House of Representatives

"Matt Gaetz’s Claim That Migrants Are Killing Monarch Butterflies Is Utter Bullsh*t" https://www.thedailybeast.com/matt-gaetzs-claim-that-migrants-are-killing-monarch-butterflies-is-utter-bullsht, The Daily Beast, 26 July 2022

World

“You can do the creation and then criticize it, but you can't do them at the same time. So if you're worried about offending people and constantly thinking of that, you are not going to be very creative. So I think it has a disastrous effect.”

John Cleese (1939) actor from England

“John Cleese says wokeness has a 'disastrous' impact on comedy” https://www.foxnews.com/media/john-cleese-wokeness-disastrous-impact-comedy Fox News (July 20, 2022)

People, Thinking, Time