As soon
Seek roses in December--ice in June,
Hope, constancy in wind, or corn in chaff;
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As soon
Seek roses in December--ice in June,
Hope, constancy in wind, or corn in chaff;
Believe a woman or an epitaph,
Or any other thing that's false, before
You trust in critics.

Ill writers are usually the sharpest censors.

Ill writers are usually the sharpest censors.

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

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

Criticism is easy, and art is difficult.
[Fr., La critique est aisee, et l'art est difficile.]

Criticism is easy, and art is difficult.
[Fr., La critique est aisee, et l'art est difficile.]

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.

Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.

Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.

Reviewers are usually people who would have been poets,
historians, biographers, etc., if they could: they have tried
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Reviewers are usually people who would have been poets,
historians, biographers, etc., if they could: they have tried
their talents at one or the other, and have failed; therefore
they turn critics.

There are come Critics so with Spleen diseased,
They scarcely come inclining to be pleased:
And sure read more

There are come Critics so with Spleen diseased,
They scarcely come inclining to be pleased:
And sure he must have more than mortal Skill,
Who please one against his Will.

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.