Quotes by Critic | Beyond Motive 10/32

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Quotes by Critic

"If you can't ignore an insult, top it; if you can't top it, laugh it off; and if you can't laugh it off, it's probably deserved."

"If you can't ignore an insult, top it; if you can't top it, laugh it off; and if you can't laugh it off, it's probably deserved."

Russell Lynes, American Critic

Resilience, Insult

40

"Agatha Christie has given more pleasure in bed than any other woman."

"Agatha Christie has given more pleasure in bed than any other woman."

Nancy Banks-Smith, American Critic

Bed, Pleasure, Woman, Nancy Banks Smith

40

"Tis the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense, and have her nonsense respected."

"Tis the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense, and have her nonsense respected."

Charles Lamb, English Critic

Friendship, Nonsense, Privilege, Talk

40

"I think we have to be fair in saying at this point that neither Roosevelt nor Lewis realized the peril to which they were exposing both the unions and the country."

"I think we have to be fair in saying at this point that neither Roosevelt nor Lewis realized the peril to which they were exposing both the unions and the country."

John T. Flynn, American Critic

Nation, Country, Saying

40

"I'm a lifelong Disney nut."

"I'm a lifelong Disney nut."

Leonard Maltin, American Critic

Entertainment, Disney

40

"We are fonder of visiting our friends in health than in sickness. We judge less favorably of their characters when any misfortune happens to them and a lucky hit either in business or reputation improves even their personal appearance in our eyes."

"We are fonder of visiting our friends in health than in sickness. We judge less favorably of their characters when any misfortune happens to them and a lucky hit either in business or reputation improves even their personal appearance in our eyes."

William Hazlitt, English Critic

Relationship, Friendship, Observation, Humanity, Judgment

40

"I call the discourse of power any discourse that engenders blame, hence guilt, in its recipient."

"I call the discourse of power any discourse that engenders blame, hence guilt, in its recipient."

Roland Barthes, French Critic

Power, Blame, Guilt

40

"Nothing they design ever gets in the way of a work of art."

"Nothing they design ever gets in the way of a work of art."

Robert Hughes, Australian Critic

Art, Design, Work, Nothing

40

"Knowledge rooted in experience shapes what we value and as a consequence how we know what we know as well as how we use what we know."

"Knowledge rooted in experience shapes what we value and as a consequence how we know what we know as well as how we use what we know."

bell hooks, American Critic

Knowledge, Experience, Values, Learning

40

"But Racine's extraordinary powers as a writer become still more obvious when we consider that besides being a great poet he is also a great psychologist."

"But Racine's extraordinary powers as a writer become still more obvious when we consider that besides being a great poet he is also a great psychologist."

Lytton Strachey, English Critic

Being, Obvious, Writer

40

"The principle of equality, which is at the core of democratic values, has very little meaning in a world in which global oligarchy is taking over."

"The principle of equality, which is at the core of democratic values, has very little meaning in a world in which global oligarchy is taking over."

bell hooks, American Critic

Equality, Democracy, Values, World

40

"The best part of our lives we pass in counting on what is to come."

"The best part of our lives we pass in counting on what is to come."

William Hazlitt, English Critic

Life, Expectation, Hope, Future

40

"Those who are fond of setting things to rights have no great objection to setting them wrong."

"Those who are fond of setting things to rights have no great objection to setting them wrong."

William Hazlitt, English Critic

Behavior, Irony, Truth, Observation

40

"The red-letter days, now become, to all intents and purposes, dead-letter days."

"The red-letter days, now become, to all intents and purposes, dead-letter days."

Charles Lamb, English Critic

40

"If you look at the history of broadcasting, what you find is the National Association of Broadcasters is a trade association whose mission is to protect the interests of the commercial broadcasters."

"If you look at the history of broadcasting, what you find is the National Association of Broadcasters is a trade association whose mission is to protect the interests of the commercial broadcasters."

Robert McChesney, American Critic

History, Mission, Trade

40

"A rose is the visible result of an infinitude of complicated goings on in the bosom of the earth and in the air above, and similarly a work of art is the product of strange activities in the human mind."

"A rose is the visible result of an infinitude of complicated goings on in the bosom of the earth and in the air above, and similarly a work of art is the product of strange activities in the human mind."

Clive Bell, English Critic

Art, Work, Earth, Mind

40

"The forms of art are inexhaustible; but all lead by the same road of aesthetic emotion to the same world of aesthetic ecstasy."

"The forms of art are inexhaustible; but all lead by the same road of aesthetic emotion to the same world of aesthetic ecstasy."

Clive Bell, English Critic

Art, Ecstasy, Emotion, Road

40

"Significantly, in future feminist movement we will spend less time critiquing patriarchal marriage bonds and expend more effort showing alternatives, showing the value of peer relationships which are founded on principles of equality, respect, and the belief that mutual satisfaction and growth are needed for partnerships to be fulfilling and lasting."

"Significantly, in future feminist movement we will spend less time critiquing patriarchal marriage bonds and expend more effort showing alternatives, showing the value of peer relationships which are founded on principles of equality, respect, and the belief that mutual satisfaction and growth are needed for partnerships to be fulfilling and lasting."

bell hooks, American Critic

Partnership, Relationship, Feminism, Equality, Respect

40

"Lifestyle feminism ushered in a notion that there could be as many versions of feminism as there were women. Suddenly the politics was being slowly removed from feminism. And the assumption prevailed that no matter what a woman's politics, be she conservative or liberal, she too could fit feminism into her existing lifestyle."

"Lifestyle feminism ushered in a notion that there could be as many versions of feminism as there were women. Suddenly the politics was being slowly removed from feminism. And the assumption prevailed that no matter what a woman's politics, be she conservative or liberal, she too could fit feminism into her existing lifestyle."

bell hooks, American Critic

Feminism, Politics, Lifestyle, Identity

39

"And the fifteenth century was an impassioned age, so ardent and serious in its pursuit of art that it consecrated everything with which art had to ad as a religious object."

"And the fifteenth century was an impassioned age, so ardent and serious in its pursuit of art that it consecrated everything with which art had to ad as a religious object."

Walter Pater, English Critic

Art, Age, Pursuit, Religious

39

"Male and female represent the two sides of the great radical dualism. But in fact they are perpetually passing into one another. Fluid hardens to solid, solid rushes to fluid. There is no wholly masculine man, no purely feminine woman."

"Male and female represent the two sides of the great radical dualism. But in fact they are perpetually passing into one another. Fluid hardens to solid, solid rushes to fluid. There is no wholly masculine man, no purely feminine woman."

Margaret Fuller, American Critic

Fact, Man, Radical, Woman

39

"Good fiction reveals feeling, refines events, locates importance and, though its methods are as mysterious as they are varied, intensifies the experience of living our own lives."

"Good fiction reveals feeling, refines events, locates importance and, though its methods are as mysterious as they are varied, intensifies the experience of living our own lives."

Vincent Canby, American Critic

Experience, Events, Feeling, Fiction

39

"No one is fit to judge a book until he has rounded Cape Horn in a sailing vessel, until he has bumped into two or three icebergs, until he has been lost in the sands of the desert, until he has spent a few years in the House of the Dead."

"No one is fit to judge a book until he has rounded Cape Horn in a sailing vessel, until he has bumped into two or three icebergs, until he has been lost in the sands of the desert, until he has spent a few years in the House of the Dead."

Van Wyck Brooks, American Critic

Experience, Years

39

"Anyone who thus looks up has some chance of becoming worthy to be looked up to in turn."

"Anyone who thus looks up has some chance of becoming worthy to be looked up to in turn."

Irving Babbitt, American Critic

39

"Again and again a man would tell me about early childhood feelings of emotional exuberance, of unrepressed joy, of feeling connected to life and to other people, and then a rupture happened, a disconnect, and that feeling of being loved, of being embraced, was gone. Somehow the test of manhood, men told me, was the willingness to accept this loss, to not speak it even in private grief. Sadly, tragically, these men in great numbers were remembering a primal moment of heartbreak and heartache: the moment that they were compelled to give up their right to feel, to love, in order to take their place as patriarchal men."

"Again and again a man would tell me about early childhood feelings of emotional exuberance, of unrepressed joy, of feeling connected to life and to other people, and then a rupture happened, a disconnect, and that feeling of being loved, of being embraced, was gone. Somehow the test of manhood, men told me, was the willingness to accept this loss, to not speak it even in private grief. Sadly, tragically, these men in great numbers were remembering a primal moment of heartbreak and heartache: the moment that they were compelled to give up their right to feel, to love, in order to take their place as patriarchal men."

bell hooks, American Critic

Masculinity, Emotion, Suppression, Loss, Heartbreak

39

"What I learned from this movie, 40 Days and 40 Nights: Absitenence can be a very good thing. Especially from box offices where this film is playing."

"What I learned from this movie, 40 Days and 40 Nights: Absitenence can be a very good thing. Especially from box offices where this film is playing."

Joel Siegel, American Critic

39

"Through the mythology of Einstein, the world blissfully regained the image of knowledge reduced to a formula."

"Through the mythology of Einstein, the world blissfully regained the image of knowledge reduced to a formula."

Roland Barthes, French Critic

Knowledge, Formula, Mythology, World

39

"Man tells his aspiration in his God; but in his demon he shows his depth of experience."

"Man tells his aspiration in his God; but in his demon he shows his depth of experience."

Margaret Fuller, American Critic

Experience, God, Man

39

"Robespierre, however, was not the type of leader finally destined to emerge from the Revolution."

"Robespierre, however, was not the type of leader finally destined to emerge from the Revolution."

Irving Babbitt, American Critic

Leadership, Leader, Revolution

39

"All that a critic, as critic, can give poets is the deadly encouragement that never ceases to remind them of how heavy their inheritance is."

"All that a critic, as critic, can give poets is the deadly encouragement that never ceases to remind them of how heavy their inheritance is."

Harold Bloom, American Critic

Encouragement, Inheritance, Poets

39

"Literature is the question minus the answer."

"Literature is the question minus the answer."

Roland Barthes, French Critic

Literature, Question

39

"Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure."

"Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure."

George Edward Woodberry, American Critic

Failure, Defeat

39

"By going to the movies, and because of other things, too, going to college, making a wide variety of friends, moving around traveling, I became a lot more open-minded than the heritage I was born into might have suggested."

"By going to the movies, and because of other things, too, going to college, making a wide variety of friends, moving around traveling, I became a lot more open-minded than the heritage I was born into might have suggested."

Roger Ebert, American Critic

Friendship, Movies, College, Friends, Open

39

"The history of the Victorian Age will never be written: we know too much about it."

"The history of the Victorian Age will never be written: we know too much about it."

Lytton Strachey, English Critic

Age, History, Will

39

"The cost of congressional and presidential campaigns has been leaping every two or four years. I think this year it will be 60 percent more than 1996; well over twice as much as in 1992 in the presidential and congressional races."

"The cost of congressional and presidential campaigns has been leaping every two or four years. I think this year it will be 60 percent more than 1996; well over twice as much as in 1992 in the presidential and congressional races."

Robert McChesney, American Critic

39

"I was at home then in the world of figures, but not in that of values."

"I was at home then in the world of figures, but not in that of values."

Georg Brandes, Danish Critic

Home, Values, World

39

"Of all the ways of acquiring books, writing them oneself is regarded as the most praiseworthy method. Writers are really people who write books not because they are poor, but because they are dissatisfied with the books which they could buy but do not like."

"Of all the ways of acquiring books, writing them oneself is regarded as the most praiseworthy method. Writers are really people who write books not because they are poor, but because they are dissatisfied with the books which they could buy but do not like."

Walter Benjamin, German Critic

People, Books, Poor, Writers

39

"Essays, entitled critical, are epistles addressed to the public, through which the mind of the recluse relieves itself of its impressions."

"Essays, entitled critical, are epistles addressed to the public, through which the mind of the recluse relieves itself of its impressions."

Margaret Fuller, American Critic

39

"Age is not different from earlier life as long as you're sitting down."

"Age is not different from earlier life as long as you're sitting down."

Malcolm Cowley, American Critic

39

"In our day the conventional element in literature is elaborately disguised by a law of copyright pretending that every work of art is an invention distinctive enough to be patented."

"In our day the conventional element in literature is elaborately disguised by a law of copyright pretending that every work of art is an invention distinctive enough to be patented."

Northrop Frye, Canadian Critic

Art, Work, Day, Invention

39

"The ambivalence of writing is such that it can be considered both an act and an interpretive process that follows after an act with which it cannot coincide. As such, it both affirms and denies its own nature."

"The ambivalence of writing is such that it can be considered both an act and an interpretive process that follows after an act with which it cannot coincide. As such, it both affirms and denies its own nature."

Paul de Man, Belgian Critic

Nature, Act, Writing

39

"So the competition isn't once you got the license, running the station; it's getting the license."

"So the competition isn't once you got the license, running the station; it's getting the license."

Robert McChesney, American Critic

Competition, Running

39

"In sheer genius Pascal ranks among the very greatest writers who have lived upon this earth. And his genius was not simply artistic; it displayed itself no less in his character and in the quality of his thought."

"In sheer genius Pascal ranks among the very greatest writers who have lived upon this earth. And his genius was not simply artistic; it displayed itself no less in his character and in the quality of his thought."

Lytton Strachey, English Critic

Quality, Genius, Thought, Character

39

"While gossip among women is universally ridiculed as low and trivial, gossip among men, especially if it is about women, is called theory, or idea, or fact."

"While gossip among women is universally ridiculed as low and trivial, gossip among men, especially if it is about women, is called theory, or idea, or fact."

Andrea Dworkin, American Critic

Woman, Women, Idea, Fact, Gossip

39

"Polar Express is not an attempt to do animation. It is a technology-based film."

"Polar Express is not an attempt to do animation. It is a technology-based film."

Leonard Maltin, American Critic

Technology, Animation, Film

39

"All Hollywood corrupts; and absolute Hollywood corrupts absolutely."

"All Hollywood corrupts; and absolute Hollywood corrupts absolutely."

Edmund Wilson, American Critic

39

"Reflection makes men cowards."

"Reflection makes men cowards."

William Hazlitt, English Critic

Man, Men, Cowards, Reflection

39

"I'd like to grow very old as slowly as possible."

"I'd like to grow very old as slowly as possible."

Charles Lamb, English Critic

39

"I also did an Ozzy piece for him, and so I got hired. Everything happened really fast. I can't give people advice, because everything in my life changed completely in less than a year and it's still not something I am used to."

"I also did an Ozzy piece for him, and so I got hired. Everything happened really fast. I can't give people advice, because everything in my life changed completely in less than a year and it's still not something I am used to."

Chuck Klosterman, American Critic

Life, People, Advice

39

"Feminist thinking teaches us all, especially, how to love justice and freedom in ways that foster and affirm life."

"Feminist thinking teaches us all, especially, how to love justice and freedom in ways that foster and affirm life."

bell hooks, American Critic

Feminism, Justice, Freedom, Love

39

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