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Reviewers are usually people who would have been poets, historians, biographers, etc., if they could; they have tried their talents at one or the other, and have failed; therefore they turn critics.

— Samuel Taylor Coleridge Lectures and Notes on Shakespeare and Other English Poets (1811)

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Advice

More quotes by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The knight's bones are dust,
And his good sword rust;
His soul is with the saints, I trust.

In many ways doth the full heart reveal
The presence of the love it would conceal.

Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve,
And Hope without an object cannot live.

Work without Hope (1825)

All thoughts, all passions, all delights,
Whatever stirs this mortal frame,
All are but ministers of Love,
And feed his sacred flame.

Flowers are lovely; love is flower-like;
Friendship is a sheltering tree;
Oh the joys that came down shower-like,
Of friendship, love, and liberty,
Ere I was old!

All Samuel Taylor Coleridge quotes →

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A man must serve his time to every trade
Save censure — critics are ready-made.

Lord Byron English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809)

The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his clients to plant vines.

Frank Lloyd Wright

Parodies and caricatures are the most penetrating of criticisms.

Aldous Huxley Point Counter Point (1928)

Let no man value at a little price
A virtuous woman's counsel; her wing'd spirit
Is feather'd oftentimes with heavenly words.

George Chapman The Gentleman Usher (1606)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Samuel Taylor Coleridge (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.