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.

Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.

Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.

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.

Ill writers are usually the sharpest censors.

Ill writers are usually the sharpest censors.

Said the pot to the kettle, "Get away, blackface."
[Sp., Dijo la sarten a la caldera, quitate alla ojinegra.]

Said the pot to the kettle, "Get away, blackface."
[Sp., Dijo la sarten a la caldera, quitate alla ojinegra.]

It is much easier to be critical that to be correct.

It is much easier to be critical that to be correct.

Criticism, as it was first instituted by Aristotle, was meant as a standard of judging well.

Criticism, as it was first instituted by Aristotle, was meant as a standard of judging well.

You know who critics are?--the men who have failed in literature
and art.

You know who critics are?--the men who have failed in literature
and art.

"I'm an owl: you're another. Sir Critic, good day." And the
barber kept on shaving.

"I'm an owl: you're another. Sir Critic, good day." And the
barber kept on shaving.