Terry Teachout Quotes

If you judge, investigate.

But the truth is that critics are by definition critical. That's their job.

That shot might not have been as good as it might have been.

There is a certain justice in criticism. The critic is like a midwife - a tyrannical midwife.

If you look at our world, it's a world of critique.

I don't delve too deep into reviews.

I have nine armchairs from which I can be critical.

My policy is to not read any reviews.

The audience is my hardest and best critic.

I love reviews. Anybody who tells you they don't read reviews is a liar.

I think naturally you want to judge things.

Seeing someone else perform and letting me be the critic for once... that's not a bad thing.

I guess every single word I've ever said is going to be dissected now.

It is the work of fancy to enlarge, but of judgment to shorten and contract; and therefore this must be as far above the other as judgment is a greater and nobler faculty than fancy or imagination.

I think that you make the best choice with the information that you have before you at that given time.

I don't know what to say about literary critics. I think it's probably best to say nothing.

Each man must reach his own verdict, by weighing all the relevant evidence.

When one cannot appraise out of one's own experience, the temptation to blunder is minimized, but even when one can, appraisal seems chiefly useful as appraisal of the appraiser.

The worst men often give the best advice.

If you would judge, understand.

To be suspicious is not a fault. To be suspicious all the time without coming to a conclusion is the defect.

Judgment is contained in the act of trying to understand.

The strength of criticism lies in the weakness of the thing criticized.

The present time, together with the past, shall be judged by a great jovialist.

The ability of discerning high quality unavoidably implies the ability of identifying shortcomings.