Give no time to finding fault of criticism.

Give no time to finding fault of criticism.

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.

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.

But, spite of all the criticising elves,
Those who would make us feel, must feel themselves.

But, spite of all the criticising elves,
Those who would make us feel, must feel themselves.

The public is the only critic whose opinion is worth anything at all.

The public is the only critic whose opinion is worth anything at all.

I criticize by creation--not by finding fault.

I criticize by creation--not by finding fault.

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.

Ill writers are usually the sharpest censors.

Ill writers are usually the sharpest censors.

Though by whim, envy, or resentment led,
They damn those authors whom they never read.

Though by whim, envy, or resentment led,
They damn those authors whom they never read.