Arthur Balfour Quotes

When people you don't know say nice things about you, if you allow yourself, even subconsciously, to attach a shred of meaning to it, when the opposite happens, when people you don't know say bad things about you, you can't attach that same meaning.

I'm not a natural criticizer - I prefer to like and praise and so on.

Praise is more obtrusive than a reproach.

Nothing makes people so worthy of compliments as receiving them. One is more delightful for being told one is delightful-just as one is more angry for being told one is angry.

It's dangerous to buy into praise and criticism for what you do when you're trying to present your music to people. I don't ignore it completely, but I don't dwell on it too much.

If you have enough people sitting around telling you you're wonderful, then you start believing you're fabulous, then someone tells you you stink and you believe that too!

The funny thing is, I'm so used to not caring what anyone says, good or bad, that unfortunately even when people say good things... I wish it made me feel good, but it doesn't.

I've been as critically rubbished as acclaimed and the worst thing about that is that it usually plays into your own self-criticism.

Players like people saying good things about them and, of course, no one is ever wrong when they do that, but they always are when they say bad stuff.

I don't like being told what you're good at. I'd rather hear what I didn't do.

Criticism can never instruct or benefit you. Its chief effect is that of a telegram with dubious news. Praise leaves no glow behind, for it is a writer's habit to remember nothing good of himself. I have usually forgotten those who have admired my work, and seldom anyone who disliked it. Obviously, this is because praise is never enough and censure always too much.

Lavish praise on people and people will flourish; criticize people and they'll shrivel up.

Nice criticism is good when it tells you something. A lot of negative "criticism" isn't criticism at all: it's just nasty, "writerly" cliché and invective.

I don't care about people kissing my ass or telling me how great I am. I don't really give a damn. I read the bad stuff a whole lot more than I read the good stuff. I read that because there are always going to be critics who are going to say how good you aren't.

Sometimes, a person who likes your work and a person who don’t will show up within milliseconds of each other to let you know how they feel. One does not need to cancel out the other, positively or negatively; if you’re proud of the work, and you enjoyed the work, that is what’s important.

How little praise warms out of a man the good that is in him, as the sneer of contempt which he feels is unjust chill the ardor to excel.

If you're criticized then you can use it as an experience. Compliments, you can't use.

You must not pay a person a compliment, and then straightway follow it with a criticism.

Flattery is telling the other person precisely what he thinks about himself.

I do not care to listen; obloquy injures my self-esteem and I am skeptical of praise.

Praise will lead you to vanity, and blame will lead you to self-pity, and both are bad for writers.

It's not usually that great of an idea to read lots of reviews of your movies, because even if somebody's saying nice things, there'll still be something in there that pushes the wrong button, and it's not really that helpful.

Hearkners, we say, seldom hear good of themselves.

The people who support me are so great! They all say such nice things that make me feel really great. I love it when people compliment me on the way I act, because it is not an easy thing, and there is so much criticism out there.

When an audience does not complain, it is a compliment, and when it does, it is a compliment, too, if unaccompanied by violence.