Criticism is the windows and chandeliers of art: it illuminates the enveloping darkness in which art might otherwise rest only vaguely discernible, and perhaps altogether unseen. — George Jean Nathan
Ours is an age of criticism, to which everything must be subjected. — Immanuel Kant
The critical principle demanded an examination, for instance, of the contribution of different periods, thus to some extent embarking on historical linguistics. — Ferdinand De Saussure
To criticize is to appreciate, to appropriate, to take intellectual possession, to establish in fine a relation with the criticized thing and to make it one's own. — Henry James
Not even analysis, by itself, can transform you. You must still do the changing yourself. — Natalie Wood
Best defense, thorough analysis, margin for error — Howard Marks
Analysis, if it is really carried out with a complete concentration of his powers, forms and completes a chess player. — Lev Polugaevsky
It is both possible (and even necessary) to simultaneously enjoy media while also being critical of its more problematic or pernicious aspects. — Anita Sarkeesian
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
Self-criticism, cruel, unsparing criticism that goes to the very root of the evil, is life and breath for the proletarian movement. — Rosa Luxemburg
Analyzing what you haven't got as well as what you have is a necessary ingredient of a career. — Grace Moore
What distinguishes modern art from the art of other ages is criticism. — Octavio Paz
Short Critical Analysis Quotes
Merciless criticism and independent thinking are the two necessary traits of revolutionary thinking. — Bhagat Singh
Criticism should be a casual conversation. — W. H. Auden
Criticism is an indirect form of self-boasting. — Emmet Fox
People not only gain understanding through reflection, they evaluate and alter their own thinking. — Albert Bandura
The science fiction method is dissection and reconstruction. — Frederik Pohl
The critic has to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic. — Oscar Wilde
Find the grain of truth in criticism-chew it and swallow it. — Don Sutton
Critical Analysis Image Quotes
Accept both compliments and criticism. It takes both sun and rain for a flower to grow.
Critical Theory Quotes
Critical reflection on practice is a requirement of the relationship between theory and practice. Otherwise theory becomes simply "blah, blah, blah, " and practice, pure activism. — Paulo Freire
The world little knows how many of the thoughts and theories which have passed through the mind of a scientific investigator, have been crushed in silence and secrecy by his own severe criticism and adverse examination! — Michael Faraday
The worst censors are those prohibiting criticism of the theory of evolution in the classroom. — Phyllis Schlafly
Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you’ll be criticized anyways.
My favorite laser disk ever was the laser disk for The Graduate, which had a commentary track that wasn't even the filmmakers, it was a professor, some film criticism guy who just happen to be this amazing commentator who went off into the whole theory of comedy. — Jay Roach
I am not well qualified to criticize the theory of rational expectations and the efficient market hypothesis because as a market participant I considered them so unrealistic that I never bothered to study them. — George Soros
Modern critics, who refuse to let a plain thing alone, have now started a theory that Cervantes's work is a vast piece of "symbolism." If so, Cervantes didn't know it himself and nobody thought of it for three hundred years. He meant it as a satire upon the silly romances of chivalry. — Stephen Leacock
Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.
Mysticism is in fact the only criticism people cannot level against my theory. — Albert Einstein
From whichever angle one looks at it, the application of racial theories remains a striking proof of the lowered demands of public opinion upon the purity of critical judgment. — Johan Huizinga
Criticism - however valid or intellectually engaging - tends to get in the way of a writer who has anything personal to say. A tightrope walker may require practice, but if he starts a theory of equilibrium he will lose grace (and probably fall off). — J. R. R. Tolkien
The final outcome cannot be known, either to the originator of a new theory, or to his colleagues and critics, who are bent on falsifying it. Thus, the scientific innovator may feel all the more lonely and uncertain. — Peter D. Mitchell
Critical Thinking Quotes
Before you speak, listen. Before you write, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you invest, investigate. Before you criticize, wait. Before you pray, forgive. Before you quit, try. Before you retire, save. Before you die, give. — William Arthur Ward
Before you react, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you criticize, wait. Before you quit, try. — Ernest Hemingway
Do not indoctrinate your children. Teach them how to think for themselves, how to evaluate evidence, and how to disagree with you. — Richard Dawkins
What you feel about another person, what you think or say about another eprson, what you do to another person - you do to you. Give judgement and criticism and you give it to yourself. Give love and appreciation to another person or anything, and you give it to yourself.
We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom. The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely. — E. O. Wilson
Responsibility to yourself means refusing to let others do your thinking, talking, and naming for you; it means learning to respect and use your own brains and instincts; hence, grappling with hard work. — Adrienne Rich
The greatest prison people live in is the fear of what other people think. — David Icke
Criticism of others is thus an oblique form of self-commendation. We think we make the picture hang straight on our wall by telling our neighbors that all his pictures are crooked. — Fulton J. Sheen
Many pastors criticize me for taking the Gospel so seriously. But do they really think that on Judgment Day, Christ will chastise me, saying, 'Leonard, you took Me too seriously'? — Leonard Ravenhill
If the press really thinks Obama is Lincoln, they ought to treat him like they treated Bush, 'cause that's how they treated Lincoln. His critics compared Lincoln to an ape; they called him an illiterate baboon. — Ann Coulter
Literary Criticism Quotes
How dare anyone, parent, schoolteacher, or merely literary critic, tell me not to act colored. — Arna Bontemps
Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion. — T. S. Eliot
Literary criticism can be no more than a reasoned account of the feeling produced upon the critic by the book he is criticising. — D. H. Lawrence
Before you act, listen. Before you react, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you criticize, wait. Before you pray, forgive. Before you quit, try.
The nearest approach to the infallible in literary judgment is represented in the colossal work of the teacher of all these three [Edmund Gosse, Edward Dowden and George Saintsbury], the greatest critic that ever lived - not an Englishman, but a Frenchman, the wonderful Sainte-Beuve. — Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve
The two main ideas that run through all of my writing, whether it be literary criticism or political polemic are these: I am strong in favor of liberty and I hate fraud. — H. L. Mencken
In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning. — George Orwell
Do what you feel in your heart to be right; For you'll be criticized anyway.
Literary critics, however, frequently suffer from a curious belief that every author longs to extend the boundaries of literary art, wants to explore new dimensions of the human spirit, and if he doesn't, he should be ashamed of himself. — Robertson Davies
Literary criticism is generally bunk. Nonsense. Usually based on self-serving post-intellectual bullshit. — John Fante
Strict rules of evidence would destroy psychoanalysis and literary criticism. — Mason Cooley
The critical method which denies literary modernity would appear -- and even, in certain respects, would be -- the most modern of critical movements. — Paul De Man
Critical Reflection Quotes
You need to do some independent thinking, especially about the important things, and try to work them out for yourself. — Edward O. Thorp
A democratic civilization will save itself only if it makes the language of the image into a stimulus for critical reflection - not an invitation for hypnosis. — Umberto Eco
At a finite distance in the future, a critical state of encounter will occur, an ultimate co-reflective Center. A focused conspiration will allure individual persons to identify with others in profound affinity. Because of thinking altogether, love will grow into Divinity. — Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Be an encourager. The world has plenty of critics already.
The air we breathe, the water we drink, and the land we inhabit are not only critical elements in the quality of life we enjoy - they are a reflection of the majesty of our Creator. — Rick Perry
Constantly worrying about your reflection and criticizing your body, shape and size is an act of violence against yourself. — Emma Thompson
Behind the epistemological scholasticism of empirio-criticism one must not fail to see the struggle of parties in philosophy, a struggle which in the last analysis reflects the tendencies and ideology of the antagonistic classes in modern society. — Vladimir Lenin
There is only one way to avoid criticism: Do nothing, Say nothing and be nothing
Action and faith enslave thought, both of them in order not be troubled or inconvenienced by reflection, criticism, and doubt. — Henri Frederic Amiel
Unless criticism refuses to take itself quite so seriously or at least to permit its readers not to, it will inevitably continue to reflect the finicky canons of the genteel tradition and the depressing pieties of the Culture Religion of Modernism. — Leslie Fiedler
Repeatedly we question the necessity of our actions and evaluate critically the reasons for carrying them out. But in flow there is no need to reflect, because the action carries us forward as if by magic. — Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it [the Constitution] a finger of that Almighty hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of the revolution. — James Madison
I think that a society cannot live without a certain number of irrational beliefs. They are protected from criticism and analysis because they are irrational. — Claude Levi-Strauss
Check the evidence. Check the basis of conventional beliefs. — Edward O. Thorp
What is quite worrisome is the absence of analysis and reflection. Take the word "terrorism." It has become synonymous now with anti-Americanism, which, in turn, has become synonymous with being critical of the United States, which, in turn, has become synonymous with being unpatriotic. That's an unacceptable series of equations. — Edward Said
The ultimate authority must always rest with the individual's own reason and critical analysis. — Dalai Lama
Cubism had been an analysis of the object and an attempt to put it before us in its totality; both as analysis and as synthesis, it was a criticism of appearance. Surrealism transmuted the object, and suddenly a canvas became an apparition: a new figuration, a real transfiguration. — Octavio Paz
This is what we've been waiting for: finally, an unprecedented critical analysis of the history of Dutch design. Mienke Simon Thomas's Dutch Design is a book to have and to read: an important and richly detailed study of the cultural, economical and social-political context of twentieth-century design in the Netherlands. — Wim Crouwel
There's only one critic whose opinion I really value, in the final analysis: Johnny Carson. I have never needed any entourage standing around bolstering my ego. I'm secure. I know exactly who and what I am. I don't need to be told. I make no apologies for being the way I am. — Johnny Carson
In the visual arts, for example, the semiological approach to graphics provides a rigorous analysis of the visual means used by the artist. It defines the basic properties and laws governing the arts and suggests objective criteria for art criticism. — Jacques Bertin
It is the Jews who originated biblical exegesis (a critical analysis of the Bible), just as they were the first to criticize the forms and doctrines of Christianity...Truly has Darmesteter written: 'The Jew was the apostle of unbelief, and every revolt of mind originated with him.' — Bernard Lazare
Four D's of Disconnection: 1. Diagnosis (judgment, analysis, criticism, comparison); 2. Denial of Responsibility; 3. Demand; 4. 'Deserve' oriented language. — Marshall B. Rosenberg
Criticism, analysis, and insults are tragic expressions of unmet needs. — Marshall B. Rosenberg
Analyses of others are actually expressions of our own needs and values — Marshall B. Rosenberg
Paraphrase, in the sense of summary, is as indispensable to the novel-critic as close analysis is to the critic of lyric poetry. The natural deduction is that novels are paraphrasable whereas poems are not. But this is a false deduction because close analysis is itself a disguised form of paraphrase. — David Lodge
Always this same morbid interest in other people and their doings, their privacies, their dirty linen, always this air of alertness for personal happenings, personalities, personalities, personalities. Always this subtle criticism and appraisal of other people, this analysis of other people's motives. If anatomy presupposes a corpse, then psychology presupposes a world of corpses. Personalities, which means personal criticism and analysis, presuppose a whole world laboratory of human psyches waiting to be vivisected. If you cut a thing up, of course it will smell. Hence, nothing raises such an infernal stink, at last, as human psychology. — D. H. Lawrence
I hope that no one present will suspect me of offering my personal criticism of the Western system to present socialism as an alternative. Having experienced applied socialism in a country where the alternative has been realized, I certainly will not speak for it. The well-known Soviet mathematician Shafarevich, a member of the Soviet Academy of Science, has written a brilliant book under the title Socialism; it is a profound analysis showing that socialism of any type and shade leads to a total destruction of the human spirit and to a leveling of mankind into death. — Alexandr Solzhenitsyn
I think that female musicians are constantly fighting an uphill battle in general. Even when I'm not writing heartbreak songs... the fact that songwriting is so difficult and music criticism has become so content driven means that sometimes critics can go for the easy descriptors rather than an in-depth analysis. — Marissa Nadler
Now obviously popularity isn't everything when it comes to stand up comedy, but the art form itself is better today than it ever has before. I think there are more great comics. I think the standard is higher. The critical analysis is a little harsher, but that is also good. Maybe people have a higher standard than before, maybe they are a little more judgmental, a little more brutal, that makes people work harder. It makes the stand up better. — Joe Rogan
I was trying to write a straightforward book of sociological analysis, or at least cultural criticism, and I failed. — Michael Eric Dyson
The "prophets" were what we would call dissident intellectuals. They provided critical geopolitical analysis, condemned the crimes of the powerful, called for justice and mercy for those who needed help, etc. I wouldn't personally endorse everything they said, any more than I would for critics of power and its crimes today. But rather generally I think they played an honorable role - and suffered accordingly. — Noam Chomsky
I read letters and journal entries by [Georgia] O'Keeffe (which were infinitely more useful than any critical analysis of her work). — Liza Campbell
Under a neoliberal regime, the language of authority, power and command is divorced from ethics, social responsibility, critical analysis and social costs. — Henry Giroux
Of course, it is worth it to take the time to think carefully through your assumptions, and ensure you at least have hypotheses around how you will create value. But use the analysis as a way to focus attention on the most critical assumptions, rather than spend a ton of time massaging the numbers. — Scott D. Anthony
"There is no analysis here," the most brutal of them wrote. Now I wonder if my papers lacked critical thought, or if it was really more about my inability/refusal to write in the convoluted style that they wanted me to. I remember the initial shock upon reading my peers' papers. I seriously could not understand them, and I couldn't understand why the writing had to be so unclear in order to be considered smart. — Mary J. Miller
I believe the advantage music has is the capacity to multiply itself, the capacity to keep itself in space and access itself at different times and in different processes and to make profound analyses, analyses that through musicality would be able to connect with people who don't necessarily have the energy or wish in any exact moment to connect to well-read or critical analysis. — Bocafloja
Nothing is more important to national security and the making and conduct of good policy than timely, accurate, and relevant intelligence. Nothing is more critical to accurate and relevant intelligence than independent analysis. — Dennis C. Blair
I'm trying to teach people of all ages to, number one: how to criticize, how to offer creative analysis on top of that, how to try to build things in a new direction and how to compliment people when the thing gets done. — Ray Bradbury
I see philosophy as a fairly abstract activity, as concerned mainly with the analysis of criticism and concepts, and of course most usefully of scientific concepts. — A.J. Ayer
In this great society wide lying around us, a critical analysis would find very few spontaneous actions. It is almost all custom and gross sense. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
A high place of honor, although doubtless one to be obtained only after enduring the pangs of a prolonged crucifixion, awaits that philosophical biologist, or that philosopher sufficiently acquainted with scientific biology, who subjects the modern doctrine of evolution to a thoroughly critical analysis, with a view to detect and to estimate its metaphysical assumptions. — George Trumbull Ladd
The philosopher ... subjects experience to his critical judgment, and this contains a value judgment namely, that freedom from toil is preferable to toil, and an intelligent life is preferable to a stupid life. It so happened that philosophy was born with these values. Scientific thought had to break this union of value judgment and analysis, for it became increasingly clear that the philosophic values did not guide the organisation of society. — Herbert Marcuse
DeFrantz's study...is not the first book about the protean Ailey, who was born in hardscrabble Texas in 1931 and died in 1989 after creating close to 80 works. But it is perhaps the most comprehensive, combining biography, criticism, the analysis of dance criticism, and a sort of corporate history, siting the now firmly established Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in the international cultural landscape. — Alvin Ailey
Most of the time, criticism that takes pop culture seriously involves performing some kind of symbolic analysis, decoding the work to demonstrate the way it represents some other aspect of society. — Steven Johnson
Analysis of President Bush's tax plan has revealed that several elaborate tricks and gimmicks were used to make it look like a $1.35 trillion cut, but in reality it's going to be closer to costing $1.8 trillion. Critics claim it's math so fuzzy, you have to squint to see our nation's future of subsistence farming and post-apocalyptic roving motorcycle gangs. — Jon Stewart
Lulled into somnolence by five hundred years of print, literary studies have been slow to wake up to the importance of MSA (media-specific analysis). Literary criticism and theory are shot through with unrecognized assumptions specific to print. Only now, as the new medium of electronic textuality vibrantly asserts its presence, are these assumptions clearly coming into view. — N. Katherine Hayles
The more repression there is, the more need there is for irreverence toward those who are responsible for that repression. But too often sarcasm passes for irony, name-calling passes for insight, bleeped-out four-letter words pass for wit, and lowest-common-denominator jokes pass for analysis. Satire should have a point of view. It doesn't have to get a belly laugh. It does have to present criticism. — Paul Krassner
There's no end to the inventiveness of critics, I tell you. Because they can't write fiction, they put their impulse into their analysis of work. — Dennis Potter
No definition of poetry is adequate unless it be poetry itself. The most accurate analysis by the rarest wisdom is yet insufficient, and the poet will instantly prove it false by setting aside its requisitions. It is indeed all that we do not know. — Henry David Thoreau
In Conclusion
Which quotation resonated with you best? Did you enjoy our collection of critical analysis quotes? Or may be you have a slogan about critical analysis to suggest. Let us know using our contact form.
Citation
Feel free to cite and use any of the quotes in this collection of critical analysis quotations. For popular citation styles(APA, Chicago, MLA), please use this citation page.
