Back in 2003, I went through a particularly bad time, and was on the point of giving up on something. Then someone sent me a quote on Criticism, and I proceeded to gather a few more.

Today, I feel equally down when, after working so hard, I face a similar situation. So here’s is that post, back from 2003, to remind myself about it:

Never criticize a man until you’ve walked a mile in his moccasins.
– American Indian Proverb

How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct.
– Benjamin Disraeli (1804 – 1881)

Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamppost how it feels about dogs.
– Christopher Hampton

Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain – and most fools do.
– Dale Carnegie

If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much.
– Donald H. Rumsfeld (1932 – )

To avoid criticism do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.
– Elbert Hubbard (1856 – 1915)

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 (1884 – 1962)

Criticism is prejudice made plausible.
– H. L. Mencken (1880 – 1956)

Against criticism a man can neither protest nor defend himself; he must act in spite of it, and then it will gradually yield to him.
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 – 1834)

Criticism comes easier than craftsmanship.
– Zeuxis (~400 BC), from Pliny the Elder, Natural History

and finally:

You aren’t remembered for doing what is expected of you
– Atul Chitnis (1962 – )