Man's true, genuine estimate,
The grand criterion of his fate,
Is not - Art thou high or low?
Did thy fortune ebb or flow? [ Burns ]

The criterion of true beauty is that
It increases on examination; if false, that it lessens. [ Greville ]

It is not the defects but the beauties which should form our criterion of judgment in all matters of art. [ Chapin ]

Every man will have his own criterion in forming his judgment of others. I depend very much on the effect of affliction. I consider how a man comes out of the furnace; gold will lie for a month in the furnace without losing a grain. [ Richard Cecil ]

Whatever mitigates the woes or increases the happiness of others is a just criterion of goodness; and whatever injures society at large, or any individual in it, is a criterion of iniquity. One should not quarrel with a dog without a reason sufficient to vindicate one through all the courts of morality. [ Goldsmith ]