A man must serve his time to every trade
Save censure--critics all are ready made.
Take hackney'd read more

A man must serve his time to every trade
Save censure--critics all are ready made.
Take hackney'd jokes from Miller, got by rote,
With just enough of learning to misquote;
A mind well skill'd to find or forge a fault;
A turn for punning, call it Attic salt;
To Jeffrey go, be silent and discreet,
His pay is just ten sterling pounds per sheet;
Fear not to lie, 'twill seem a lucky hit;
Shrink not from blasphemy, 'twill pass for wit;
Care not for feeling--pass your proper jest,
And stand a critic, hated yet caress'd.

The press, the pulpit, and the stage,
Conspire to censure and expose our age.

The press, the pulpit, and the stage,
Conspire to censure and expose our age.

The rule in carving holds good as to criticism; never cut with a knife what you can cut with a read more

The rule in carving holds good as to criticism; never cut with a knife what you can cut with a spoon.

Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway.

Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway.

All who (like him) have writ ill plays before,
For they, like thieves, condemned, are hangman made,
read more

All who (like him) have writ ill plays before,
For they, like thieves, condemned, are hangman made,
To execute the members of their trade.

He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help.

He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help.

People ask for criticism, but they only want praise.

People ask for criticism, but they only want praise.

Too nicely Jonson knew the critic's part,
Nature in him was almost lost in art.

Too nicely Jonson knew the critic's part,
Nature in him was almost lost in art.

Each generation produces its squad of "moderns" with peashooters to attack Gibraltar.

Each generation produces its squad of "moderns" with peashooters to attack Gibraltar.