Quotes on Criticism To Inspire, Consider and Also Laugh About
These quotes on criticism are eye opening and inspiring for how to deal with receiving criticism – even if it’s not warranted.
Receiving criticism is never easy. It might be a casual remark, a performance review at work, a passive aggressive comment or an outright expression of disapproval from someone – it all stings though.
Everyone receives criticism. It’s impossible to please everyone, so no matter how you act, someone will always find fault. As Elbert Hubbard said:
“To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.”
Sometimes, criticism is merely somebody else’s personal opinion and then sometimes, it’s actually true…
Is Criticism Good Or Bad?
Criticism can be both good and bad, it all depends on your perspective, the context of the situation and the way it’s delivered.
By considering a critic’s words and their motives, you can tell whether they’re trying to help or if they’re simply being mean-spirited by tearing you down.
How Do You Handle Criticism?
The best approach to criticism is simply to take it in stride. It’s easy to get upset when someone criticizes you but take a step back and examine the criticism. Then ask yourself if there’s any truth to it or not.
The truth may not be apparent at first, but after giving the criticism some thought, you might realize that it has merit. Or maybe there are flaws in your reasoning, which is also valid criticism.
The point is, don’t be so quick to dismiss criticism. In fact, being able to consider and act on constructive criticism is an essential part of having a growth mindset.
Listen to what others have to say and consider it before you react. If something isn’t right or makes no sense, take the time to figure out why, then do your best next time.
However, there are some things that aren’t worth considering at all. These include insults, personal attacks and anything else intended to hurt you instead of help.
Criticism Quotes
These quotes on criticism help to remind us that we all receive it from time to time, and provides some interesting perspectives on both good and bad criticism:
“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.” Winston Churchill
“Don’t criticize what you can’t understand.” Bob Dylan
“Any fool can criticize, complain, and condemn—and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.” Dale Carnegie
“The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.” Norman Vincent Peale
“Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
“A creative life cannot be sustained by approval any more than it can be destroyed by criticism.” Will Self
“I like criticism. It makes you strong.” LeBron James
“Criticism is a misconception: we must read not to understand others but to understand ourselves.” Emil Cioran
“Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body; it calls attention to the development of an unhealthy state of things. If it is heeded in time, danger may be averted; if it is suppressed, a fatal distemper may develop.” Winston Churchill
Quotes on Criticism – To Inspire
“Few people have the wisdom to prefer the criticism that would do them good, to the praise that deceives them.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld
“You can’t let praise or criticism get to you. It’s a weakness to get caught up in either one.” John Wooden
“Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway. You’ll be damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.” Eleanor Roosevelt
“The final proof of greatness lies in being able to endure criticism without resentment.” Elbert Hubbard
“Do not let arrogance go to your head and despair to your heart; do not let compliments go to your head and criticisms to your heart; do not let success go to your head and failure to your heart.” Roy T. Bennett
“The motive behind criticism often determines its validity. Those who care criticize where necessary. Those who envy criticize the moment they think that they have found a weak spot.” Criss Jami
“I am my own biggest critic. Before anyone else has criticized me, I have already criticized myself. But for the rest of my life, I am going to be with me and I don’t want to spend my life with someone who is always critical. So I am going to stop being my own critic. It’s high time that I accept all the great things about me.” C. JoyBell C.
“Criticism is an indirect form of self-boasting.” Emmet Fox
“People tend to criticize their spouse most loudly in the area where they themselves have the deepest emotional need.” Gary Chapman
“I have yet to find the man, however exalted his station, who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than under a spirit of criticism.” Charles Schwab
“To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.” Elbert Hubbard
“If you want to be honest with yourself, you have to take criticism, even if you attract adverse comments from others.” Mahathir Mohamad
“The clear problem of the outlawing of insult is that too many things can be interpreted as such. Criticism, ridicule, sarcasm, merely stating an alternative point of view to the orthodoxy, can be interpreted as insult.” Rowan Atkinson
“I have no right, by anything I do or say, to demean a human being in his own eyes. What matters is not what I think of him; it is what he thinks of himself. To undermine a man’s self-respect is a sin.” Antoine de Saint-Exupery
“Don’t criticize them; they are just what we would be under similar circumstances.” Abraham Lincoln
Funny Criticism Quotes
To keep things light, we’ve included this collection of funny quotes about criticism too:
“The covers of this book are too far apart.” Ambrose Bierce
“One mustn’t criticize other people on grounds where he can’t stand perpendicular himself.” Mark Twain
“Often those that criticise others reveal what he himself lacks.” Shannon L. Alder
“People ask you for criticism, but they only want praise.” W. Somerset Maugham
“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
“If you keep your feathers well-oiled the water of criticism will run off as from a duck’s back.” Ellen Swallow Richards
“Long books, when read, are usually overpraised, because the reader wishes to convince others and himself that he has not wasted his time.” E.M. Forster
For more inspirational quotes and words, be sure to check out:
- 48 Strong Quotes For When Life Is Hard
- 42 Positive Life Quotes – To Encourage Better Thoughts
- Quotes From Seneca & Stoic Wisdom on Life
- Stoic Quotes on Control (Within or Without?)
- 42 of The Best Stoic Quotes For Life
- Control Quotes & An Inspiring Reminder of What We Can Control
