“Surely the best critic is he who, neither ashamed of admiring when he can, nor afraid of reprehending when he ought, does not ask the reader to take his admiration or reprehension on trust, but vindicates both by adducing such reasons as in all ages have sufficed to demonstrate why masterpieces are masterpieces, and why failures are failures.”

On the duty of the critic to give reasoned praise and blame · Essay, Excursions in Criticism

• Criticism
• Judgement
• Reason

“We cannot believe that he criticiseth best who loveth best all styles both great and small.”

Against indiscriminate appreciation as the mark of the best critic · Essay, Excursions in Criticism

• Criticism
• Judgement
• Taste

“And after all, the highest beauty in art is, perhaps, a transcendent propriety.”

Valuing fitness and rightness above mere strangeness or excess in art · Essay, Excursions in Criticism

• Art
• Beauty
• Propriety

“The masters of literature are universal explorers and adventurers; they do not deliberately beat about for ever in a little creek or inlet, and call that navigating the world.”

On the need for breadth rather than narrow specialism in literature · Essay, Excursions in Criticism

• Criticism
• Literature
• Universality