PRAISE QUOTES III
quotations about praise
Praise is a rebuke to the man whose conscience alloweth it not.
ELIZA COOK
Diamond Dust
He who is indifferent to praise is generally dead to shame.
ELIZA COOK
Diamond Dust
Just praise is only a debt.
G. BERKELEY
attributed, Day's Collacon
There are three kinds of praise, that which we yield, that which we lend, and that which we pay. We yield it to the powerful from fear, we lend it to the weak from interest, and we pay it to the deserving from gratitude.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
There's no weapon that slays
Its victim so surely (if well aimed) as praise.
EDWARD BULWER LYTTON
"Lucile"
Praise is like ambergrease: a little whiff of it, and by snatches, is very agreeable; but when a man holds a whole lump of it to your nose, it is a stink, and strikes you down.
ALEXANDER POPE
"Thoughts on Various Subjects"
A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Maxims
Or who would ever care to do brave deed,
Or strive in virtue others to excel,
If none should yield him his deserved meed,
Due praise, that is the spur of doing well?
EDMUND SPENSER
"The Tears of the Muses"
Praise
Is the reflection doth from virtue rise;
These fair encomiums do virtue raise
To higher acts: to praise is to advise.
Telling men what they are, we let them see,
And represent to them what they should be.
CHARLES ALEYN
The Battaile Of Poictiers
To praise a man's self, cannot be decent, except it be in rare cases; but to praise a man's office or profession, he may do it with good grace, and with a kind of magnanimity.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Praise", The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral
Praise is ever attendant on great wealth.
ROMAN PROVERB
Praise the young and they will blossom.
YIDDISH PROVERB
He who praises every body, praises nobody.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
"Johnsoniana", The European Magazine and London Review, January 1785
Join voices, all ye living souls: ye birds,
That singing up to heaven-gate ascend,
Bear on your wings and in your notes his praise.
JOHN MILTON
Paradise Lost
Praise is rebuke to the man whose conscience alloweth it not.
MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER
Proverbial Philosophy
Conceited people never hear anything but praise.
ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY
The Little Prince
What praise is more valuable than the praise of an intelligent servant?
JANE AUSTEN
Pride and Prejudice
Praise, like sunlight, helps all things to grow.
CROFT M. PENTZ
The Complete Book of Zingers
The maxim that men are not to be praised before their death was invented by envy and too lightly adopted by philosophers. I, on the contrary, maintain that they ought to be praised in their lifetime if they merit it; but jealousy and calumny, roused against their virtue or their talent, labour to degrade them if any one ventures to bear testimony to them. It is unjust criticism that they should fear to hazard, not sincere praise.
LUC DE CLAPIERS, MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES
Reflections and Maxims
To praise well is a difficult art, an intellectual and moral feat, to which must go delicacy and cultivation of mind, thought and nice perception, and chivalrous generosity. How fine was the eulogy of Frederick the Great as a state feast, when he withdrew a brave Austrian general from the opposite side of the table and placed him near the royal seat, saying, "I have always wished to see you at my side rather than facing me." But, contrariwise, Nicole's compliments were saved from offense only by their comedy. When the bashful scholar was summoned to a company by a Parisian beauty to grace her hospitality, he retired as soon as he could, covering his retreat with clouds of fine speeches, in which he informed his hostess that her "lovely little eyes" were irresistible; but being reproached outside by a friend, who told him he had accused the lady of what all her sex thought a defect, the dismayed scholar returned abruptly to the company, humbly begged pardon for his error, and exclaimed: "Madam, I never beheld such fine large eyes, such fine large lips, such fine large hands, or so fine and large a person altogether in the whole course of my life." When a man who usually was mute spoke wisely and well, but pleaded at the beginning that his habitual silence should excuse his deficiencies, a lady said to him afterward: "Sir, I like the speech of silent men," which was very elegant praise. So said one humble in station to a scholar: "When I talk with you I forget you know more than I do." Whether to bestow this high praise or to earn it was the more admirable may be questioned. Weiss said "the gift of appreciation is as divine as the dignity of being appreciated." Thus may two sit on a level who seem, to outward sight, far parted. But some praise is very repulsive. Such is formal praise, insincere praise, conventional matter-of-course compliment, intemperate and coarse commendation which outreaches truth and covers with confusion, public praise wherein it should be private, and general praise wherein it should be particular and discriminating. The one simple rule is this: Praise should be first true, that is, temperate and thoughtful; and then generous, that is, living and warm. It is well not to venture on praise at the moment, for it is a matter well worthy of preparation.
JAMES VILA BLAKE
"Of Praising", Essays