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Never judge a critic by your agreement with his likes and dislikes.

— George Saintsbury

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Advice

More quotes by George Saintsbury

Nothing is more curious than the almost savage hostility that Humour excites in those who lack it.

When people cannot write good literature it is perhaps natural that they should lay down rules how good literature should be written.

Majorities are generally wrong, if only in their reasons for being right.

Let us also once more rejoice in, and thank God for, the fact that we know nothing about Homer, and practically nothing about Shakespeare.

Oratory is, after all, the prose literature of the savage.

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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: George Saintsbury (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.