I hate orthodox criticism. I don't mean great criticism, like that of Matthew Arnold and others, but the … - Brenda Ueland

Same topic Authors

Quote of the day

I think that's why I like baseball. There's something great about it - you're young, the pitcher's young and he's got this great arm, and he doesn't really realize anything about strategy.

Brenda Ueland

I hate orthodox criticism. I don't mean great criticism, like that of Matthew Arnold and others, but the usual small niggling, fussy-mussy criticism, which thinks it can improve people by telling them where they are wrong, and results only in putting them in straitjackets of hesitancy and self-consciousness, and weazening all vision and bravery.

Bravery, Hate, Hesitancy, Mean, Thinking, Weazening

Same Author Quotes

Everybody is talented because everybody who is human has something to express.

Everybody, Express, Human, Humans, Talent, Talented

We should all know this: that listening is not talking; [it] is the gifted and great role and the imaginative role. And the true listener is much more beloved, magnetic than the talker, and he is more effective, and learns more and does more good. And so try listening. Listen to your wife, your husband, your father, your mother, your children, your friends; to those who love you and those who don't, to those who bore you, to your enemies. It will work a small miracle. And perhaps a great one.

Children, Husband, Love, Magnetic, Mother, Wife

But the great artists like Michelangelo and Blake and Tolstoi--like Christ whom Blake called an artist because he had one of the most creative imaginations that ever was on earth--do not want security, egoistic or materialistic. Why, it never occurs to them. "Be not anxious for the morrow," and "which of you being anxious can add one cubit to his stature?" So they dare to be idle, i. e. not to be pressed and duty-driven all the time. They dare to love people even when they are very bad, and they dare not to try and dominate others to show them what they must do for their own good.

Anxious, Artist, Idle, Imagination, Peace

. . . writing is not a performance but a generosity.

Generosity, Performance, Performances, Writing

When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand. Ideas actually begin to grow within us and come to life.

Actually, Come, Grow, Grows, Ideas, Listening