Critique (n.) is not precisely a criticism, but a critical analysis. Pure reason is not being attacked, per say, rather the aim is to show its limitations; rather he hopes to show its possibility, and to exalt it above the impure knowledge which comes to us through the distorting channels of sense.
Critique (n.) is negative the way the police are: its business is only to prevent violence, so that each may pursue his vocation in peace.
Critique (n.) is not a critique of books and systems but of the faculty of reason itself, deciding whether metaphysics is possible at all.
Critique (n.) looks merely negative yet is positive the way the police are: by stopping violence it lets each carry on his affairs in peace.
Critique (n.) that limits speculative reason turns out positive: the principles by which speculation overreaches would actually narrow reason, threatening to swallow up its practical, moral use.
Critique (n.) is not a doctrine but a purification: its use is only negative, keeping reason free of errors — and by that alone a great deal is won.
Critique (n.) would face its only real stumbling block if anyone could prove a priori that all thinking beings are simple substances: then we would have stepped into the field of noumena, and anyone favored by an auspicious star could settle there and take possession.
Critique (n.) answers what dogmatism cannot: it does not consider the question objectively at all, but asks about the foundations of the cognition in which the question is grounded.
Critique (n.) is a true cathartic, purging dogmatic delusions along with the punditry that attends them.
Critique (n.) is a searching review that knows no respect for persons; nothing is so useful or so sacred that it may be exempted.
Critique (n.) judges reason's whole capacity and proves its boundaries; the censorship of reason judges only its deeds and so only suspects limits.
Critique (n.) takes the place of theory wherever judgement is concerned: there is no doctrine of judgement, only its examination.
Critique (n.) owns no realm of objects; it is not a doctrine but a survey of the faculties' pretensions, meant to confine them within their legitimate bounds.
Critique (n.) is the true middle way between dogmatism and skepticism — not a mechanical mix of something from each side, but one fixed precisely by principles.
Critique (n.) stands to school metaphysics as chemistry to alchemy, or astronomy to the fortune-teller's astrology.
Critique (n.) once tasted makes one loathe forever the dogmatic chatter one had to put up with only because reason was hungry and had nothing better to eat.
Critique (n.) gives judgment a standard for telling knowledge from pseudo-knowledge, and establishes a manner of thinking that spreads to every use of reason and first excites the true philosophical spirit.
Critique (n.) clips dogmatism's wings; marking the limits of understanding is the surest way to tear enthusiasm out by the roots.