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If you desire praise or esteem, endeavor to merit it.
NORMAN MACDONALD, Maxims and Moral Reflections
We are all motivated by a keen desire for praise, and the better a man is, the more he is inspired by glory.
Praise is rebuke to the man whose conscience alloweth it not.
MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER, Proverbial Philosophy
In doing what we ought we deserve no praise, because it is our duty.
- Fools may our scorn, not envy raise,
- For envy is a kind of praise.
JOHN GAY, Fables
- 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"
Praising all alike, is praising none.
JOHN GAY, Epistle to a Lady
He that searches for praise will often find contempt.
NORMAN MACDONALD, Maxims and Moral Reflections
None of us are so much praised or censured as we think; and most men would be thoroughly cured of their self-importance, if they would only rehearse their own funeral, and walk abroad incognito, the very day after that on which they were supposed to have been buried.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON, Lacon
- Hell's foundations quiver
- At the shout of praise;
- Brothers, lift your voices,
- Loud your anthems raise.
SABINE BARING-GOULD, Onward, Christian Soldiers
Praise increases where the excellence is attained but by few.
Better to deserve praise without having it, than to have it without deserving it.
- 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
The praise we seek for our own virtues sometimes tempts us to flatter the imperfections of other men.
NORMAN MACDONALD, Maxims and Moral Reflections
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
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 or blame has but a momentary effect on the man whose love of beauty in the abstract makes him a severe critic on his own works.
JOHN KEATS, letter to James Hessey, Oct. 9, 1818
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
We are too apt to love praise, but not to deserve it.
WILLIAM PENN, Some Fruits of Solitude
Praise, like sunlight, helps all things to grow.
CROFT M. PENTZ, The Complete Book of Zingers
A man ought to blush when he is praised for perfections he does not possess.
WELLINS CALCOTT, Thoughts Moral and Divine
No man has ever praised to persons equally--and pleased them both.
ARTHUR HELPS, Thoughts in the Cloister and the Crowd
Desire of praise is a fruitful tree.
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