Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux Quotes

There is no country in the world where the process of self-criticism and self-correction is more active than in the United States.

I'm the greatest critic of my work.

I do not take to the field to defend myself from certain criticisms. If I do, in this kind of career, it is because I'm very self-critical.

I always see what I did wrong, what I could do better.

You have to be able to analyze yourself and critique yourself from every which way.

If you think everything you've done is great, you're probably dumb.

It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us. This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good heart whatever they might have to say.

All of us should be much more humble and contrite when we point the finger at somebody else, because four more fingers are pointing back at us.

We justify ourselves when we should judge ourselves. If we learned humility, it might spare us the humiliation.

I'm my own biggest critic, and the only way I'm going to improve is to see what I was doing wrong.

I must congratulate myself, in passing, for never having lost the ability to examine my conscience, never having lost the gift of finding myself wanting & defective. Why fear the criticism of others when you, yourself, are first out of the critical gate? If self-denigration is the race I am the winner, even before the starting gun. Collect the bets.

I'm a very vicious critic of myself.

'What am I missing?' is a much more important question than 'How cool am I?'

But let's face it, I still have to look at my self and look at the things I've done down the stretch.

You have to attempt to be objective about yourself.

The key thing is you can be the only person, your own critic.

Criticism is valuable... and self-congratulatory experiences are not.

Occupy yourself in beholding and bewailing your own imperfections rather than contemplating the imperfections of others.

I'm not good at watching myself.

One ought to look a good deal at oneself before thinking of condemning others.

It is better to destroy one's own errors than those of others.

Self criticism must be my guide to action, and the first rule for its employment is that in itself it is not a virtue, only a procedure.

Observe all men, thyself most.

I'm my own severest critic, and I realize when I make mistakes.

I am absolutely my own biggest critic.