“Censure,” says a late ingenious author, “is the tax a man pays for being eminent.” It is a folly for an eminent man to think of escaping it, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution. There is no defense against reproach but obscurity; it is a kind of concomitant to greatness, as satires and invectives were an essential part of a Roman triumph.
Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-06-26), The Spectator, No. 101
(Source)
The quotation is from Jonathan Swift.
Quotations about:
critique
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This book fills a much-needed gap.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Moses Hadas (1900-1966), Professor, Columbia University (Attributed)
The best of all ways to make one’s reading valuable is to write about it, and so I hope my Cousin Elizabeth has a blank book where she keeps some record of her thoughts.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Letter to Elizabeth Tucker (1832-02-01)
People see the wrongness in an idea much quicker that the rightness.
Charles F. Kettering (1876-1958) American inventor, engineer, researcher, businessman
(Attributed)
I much prefer the sharpest criticism of a single intelligent man to the thoughtless approval of the masses.
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) German astronomer
(Attributed)
