#critic

I listen to them freely and with all the respect merited by their intelligence, their character, their knowledge, reserving always my incontestable right of criticism and censure. ↗

— Mikhail Bakunin

#censure #character #criticism #freely #i

The realization of a sustainable economic development strategy for Maine's Native American communities has always been a priority and a critical element of my administration's overall economic development strategy. ↗

— John Baldacci

#always #american #been #communities #critical

Painting, n.: The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather, and exposing them to the critic. ↗

— Ambrose Bierce

#critic #exposing #flat #painting #protecting

Life, of course, never gets anyone's entire attention. Death always remains interesting, pulls us, draws us. As sleep is necessary to our physiology, so depression seems necessary to our psychic economy. In some secret way, Thanatos nourishes Eros as well as opposes it. The two principles work in covert concert; though in most of us Eros dominates, in none of us is Thanatos completely subdued. However-and this is the paradox of suicide-to take one's life is to behave in a more active, assertive, "erotic" way than to helplessly watch as one's life is taken away from one by inevitable mortality. Suicide thus engages with both the death-hating and the death-loving parts of us: on some level, perhaps, we may envy the suicide even as we pity him. It has frequently been asked whether the poetry of Plath would have so aroused the attention of the world if Plath had not killed herself. I would agree with those who say no. The death-ridden poems move us and electrify us because of our knowledge of what happened. Alvarez has observed that the late poems read as if they were written posthumously, but they do so only because a death actually took place. "When I am talking about the weather / I know what I am talking about," Kurt Schwitters writes in a Dada poem (which I have quoted in its entirety). When Plath is talking about the death wish, she knows what she is talking about. In 1966, Anne Sexton, who committed suicide eleven years after Plath, wrote a poem entitled "Wanting to Die," in which these startlingly informative lines appear: But suicides have a special language. Like carpenters they want to know which tools. They never ask why build. When, in the opening of "Lady Lazarus," Plath triumphantly exclaims, "I have done it again," and, later in the poem, writes, Dying Is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well. I do it so it feels like hell. I do it so it feels real. I guess you could say I've a call, we can only share her elation. We know we are in the presence of a master builder. ↗

— Janet Malcolm

#art

Asking a critic to name his favorite book is like asking a butcher to name his favorite pig. ↗

— John McCarthy

#book #butcher #critic #favorite #his

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

— Mark Twain

#critic #only #opinion #public #whose

Greater public recognition will also be critical in encouraging prevention and early intervention, and more generally in building public support to meet the challenges of dementia. ↗

— Julie Bishop

#building #challenges #critical #dementia #early

Space exploration and experimentation are critically valuable to our nation. I know of no better way to honor those seven who sacrificed their lives than to recommit ourselves to defend and enhance America's important strategies in space. ↗

— Rob Bishop

#better #better way #critically #defend #enhance

Meanwhile, hard-working Americans are increasingly faced with workplace conditions in which critically important safeguards are watered down, emerging problems are ignored, and enforcement is scaled back. ↗

— Tim Bishop

#conditions #critically #down #emerging #enforcement

My music appeals in America. There is less of the purist criticism I get here. And to be a hit in the U.S... what singer doesn't have that dream? ↗

— Katherine Jenkins

#appeals #criticism #dream #get #here