PRAISE QUOTES
quotations about praise
An ingenuous mind feels in unmerited praise the bitterest reproof. If you reject it you are unhappy, if you accept it you are undone.
WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR
Imaginary Conversations
Hell's foundations quiver
At the shout of praise;
Brothers, lift your voices,
Loud your anthems raise.
SABINE BARING-GOULD
Onward, Christian Soldiers
Better to deserve praise without having it, than to have it without deserving it.
IVAN PANIN
Thoughts
The man who is praised by others is regarded as worthy though he may be really void of all merit. But the man who sings his own praises becomes disgraced though he should be Indra, the possessor of all excellencies.
CHANAKYA
Vridda-Chanakya
Praise a fool, and slay him; for the canvas of his vanity is spread;
His bark is shallow in the water, and a sudden gust shall sink it:
Praise a wise man, and speed him on his way; for he carrieth the ballast of humility,
And is glad when his course is cheered by the sympathy of brethren ashore.
MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER
Proverbial Philosophy
Praising all alike, is praising none.
JOHN GAY
Epistle to a Lady
Crown us with praise, and make us
As fat as tame things: one good deed, dying tongueless,
Slaughters a thousand, waiting upon that:
For praises are our wages.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Winter's Tale
Praise undeserved is satire in disguise.
HENRY BROADHURST
British Beauties
Fools may our scorn, not envy raise,
For envy is a kind of praise.
JOHN GAY
Fables
Praise is the reflection of virtue; but it is as the glass or body, which giveth the reflection. If it be from the common people, it is commonly false and naught; and rather followeth vain persons, than virtuous. For the common people understand not many excellent virtues. The lowest virtues draw praise from them; the middle virtues work in them astonishment or admiration; but of the highest virtues, they have no sense of perceiving at all. But shows, and species virtutibus similes, serve best with them. Certainly fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swoln, and drowns things weighty and solid. But if persons of quality and judgment concur, then it is (as the Scripture saith) nomen bonum instar unguenti fragrantis. It fireth all round about, and will not easily away. For the odors of ointments are more durable, than those of flowers. There be so many false points of praise, that a man may justly hold it a suspect. Some praises proceed merely of flattery; and if he be an ordinary flatterer, he will have certain common attributes, which may serve every man; if he be a cunning flatterer, he will follow the archflatterer, which is a man's self; and wherein a man thinketh best of himself, therein the flatterer will uphold him most: but if he be an impudent flatterer, look wherein a man is conscious to himself, that he is most defective, and is most out of countenance in himself, that will the flatterer entitle him to perforce, spreta conscientia. Some praises come of good wishes and respects, which is a form due, in civility, to kings and great persons, laudando praecipere, when by telling men what they are, they represent to them, what they should be. Some men are praised maliciously, to their hurt, thereby to stir envy and jealousy towards them: pessimum genus inimicorum laudantium; insomuch as it was a proverb, amongst the Grecians, that he that was praised to his hurt, should have a push rise upon his nose; as we say, that a blister will rise upon one's tongue, that tells a lie. Certainly moderate praise, used with opportunity, and not vulgar, is that which doth the good.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Praise", The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral
Praise from a friend, or censure from a foe,
Are lost on hearers that our merits know.
HOMER
The Iliad
If you desire praise or esteem, endeavor to merit it.
NORMAN MACDONALD
Maxims and Moral Reflections
Praise is the weapon God gives you to leverage the negative circumstances of your life.
DAVID EVANS
Dare to Be a Man
We are all motivated by a keen desire for praise, and the better a man is, the more he is inspired by glory.
CICERO
Pro archia
The praise of the praiseworthy is above all rewards.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN
The Two Towers
I'm tired of praise; and love is very sweet, when it is simple and sincere like this.
LOUISA MAY ALCOTT
Jo's Boys
Praise increases where the excellence is attained but by few.
EDWARD COUNSEL
Maxims
Praise is but virtue's shadow; who courts her,
Doth more the handmaid than the dame admire.
ROBERT HEATH
Clarastella
A man ought to blush when he is praised for perfections he does not possess.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
Put least trust in him who is foremost to praise you,
Nor judge of a road till it draw to the end.
JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY
"Rules of the Road"