Ruling On Criticism

A pun is the lowest form of wit. - John Dennis

Wit is the lowest form of humor. - Alexander Pope

When the wine is in, the wit is out. - English Proverb

Speech is the small change of silence. - George Meredith

It's easier to be a critic than an author. - Yiddish proverb

Music is well said to be the speech of angels. - Thomas Carlyle

Heresy is another word for freedom of thought. - Graham Greene

A critic is a legless man who teaches running. - Channing Pollock

The best road to progress is freedom's road. - John F Kennedy

A story is told as much by silence as by speech. - Susan Griffin

Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one. - A.J. Liebling

American freedom consists largely in talking nonsense. - Ed Howe

How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct. - Benjamin Disraeli

A sage thing is timely silence, and better than any speech. - Plutarch

I know but one freedom, and that is the freedom of the mind. - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Wit is the rarest quality to be met with among people of education. - William Hazlitt

In critical moments even the very powerful have need of the weakest. - Aesop

It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech. - Mark Twain

Freedom is always and exclusively freedom for the one who thinks differently. - Rosa Luxemburg

Never wear your best trousers when you go out to fight for freedom and truth. - Henrik Ibsen

If we are a country committed to free speech, then why do we have phone bills? - Steven Wright

In conversation, humor is worth more than wit and easiness more than knowledge. - George Herbert

A nation which makes the final sacrifice for life and freedom does not get beaten. - Kemal Ataturk

Wit ought to be a glorious treat like caviar; never spread it about like marmalade. - Noel Coward

Drama Critic: A person who surprises the playwright by informing him what he meant. - Wilson Mizner

My wife has a slight impediment in her speech. Every now and then she stops to breathe. - Jimmy Durante

People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid. - Soren Kierkegaard

If crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight? - George Carlin

We are driven by five genetic needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun. - William Glasser

Freedom in general may be defined as the absence of obstacles to the realization of desires. - Bertrand Russell

Critics search for ages for the wrong word which, to give them credit, they eventually find. - Peter Ustinov

Wit is the sudden marriage of ideas which before their union were not perceived to have any relation. - Mark Twain

Never pay attention to what critics say. Remember, a statue has never been set up in honor of a critic. - Jean Sibelius

The trouble with many critics is that they tell you what should be in situations they never have been in themselves. - Unknown

Perfect freedom is as necessary to the health and vigor of commerce as it is to the health and vigor of citizenship. - Patrick Henry

I don't like to write like God. It is only because you never do it, though, that the critics think you can't do it. - Ernest Hemingway

Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it. - John Adams

A mere 40 years ago, beach volleyball was just beginning. No bureaucrat would have invented it, and that's what freedom is all about. - Newt Gingrich

When my time on Earth is gone and my activities here are past, I want that they should bury me upside down so my critics can kiss my ass. - Bobby Knight

Ultimately, America's answer to the intolerant man is diversity, the very diversity which our heritage of religious freedom has inspired. - Robert F. Kennedy