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About this quote

What does it mean?
Criticism creates an intellectual order that helps creative work succeed and lets better ideas win.
In plain terms
Good criticism sets up ideas so the best ones can succeed.
What can you take from it?
Use criticism to establish order and elevate better ideas.

Where it applies

  • academic debate
  • policy making
  • cultural discourse

Putting it to work

  • organize thoughts
  • evaluate ideas
  • promote quality

Questions to consider

  • How do ideas become best?
  • What is the role of criticism?

Another view

Criticism can sometimes stifle creativity if too rigid.

More from Matthew Arnold

  1. For the creation of a masterwork of literature two powers must concur, the power of the man and the power of the moment, and the man is not enough without the …

    Permalink to quote #76
  2. There is the world of ideas and there is the world of practice; the French are often for suppressing the one and the English the other; but neither is to be su…

    Permalink to quote #78
  3. The grand style arises in poetry, when a noble nature, poetically gifted, treats with simplicity or with severity a serious subject.

    Permalink to quote #75

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