Praise

Praise is the act of making positive statements about a person, object or idea, either in public or privately. Praise is typically, but not exclusively, earned relative to achievement and accomplishment. Praise is often contrasted with criticism, where the latter is held to mean exclusively negative statements made about something, although this is not technically correct.

Anyone who delights in praise destroys it. ~ Guigo I

Quotes

• It is not for minds like ours to give or to receive flattery; yet the praises of sincerity have ever been permitted to the voice of friendship.
  • Lord Byron, "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage," canto 4, dedication, Paul E. More, ed., The Complete Poetical Works of Lord Byron (1905), p. 54.

• Praise enough
  To fill the ambition of a private man,
  That Chatham's language was his mother-tongue.
  • William Cowper, The Task (1785), Book II, line 235.

• The only way to escape the corruptible effect of praise is to go on working.
  • Albert Einstein, The Ultimate Quotable Einstein (2010), p. 25

• From sunrise till sunset, may the name of Ezina be praised. People should submit to the yoke of Ezina. Whoever has silver, whoever has jewels, whoever has cattle, whoever has sheep shall take a seat at the gate of whoever has grain, and pass his time there.
  • Enki, in Debate between sheep and grain (mid to late 3rd millennium BCE) [1]

• I am about courting a girl I have had but little acquaintance with. How shall I come to a knowledge of her faults, and whether she has the virtues I imagine she has? Answer. Commend her among her female acquaintance.
  • Benjamin Franklin, "Miscellaneous Observations," The Works of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Jared Sparks, vol. 2, p. 550 (1836).

• Anyone who delights in praise destroys it.
  • Guigo I, The Meditations of Guigo I, Prior of the Charterhouse, as translated by A. Gordon Mursell (1995), #20

• He who praises every body, praises nobody.
  • Attributed to Samuel Johnson, "Johnsoniana", The European Magazine and London Review (January 1785), p. 55. The anecdote which quotes this line was reprinted in The Works of Samuel Johnson, vol. 11 (Apophthegms, Sentiments, Opinions and Occasional Reflections), p. 216 (1787). According to George Birkbeck Hill, Johnsonian Miscellanies (1897, reprinted 1966), vol. 2, p. 1, 312, the author of this anecdote was George Steevens.

• Alas! the praise given to the ear
  Ne'er was nor e'er can be sincere.
  • Letitia Elizabeth Landon The Venetian Bracelet (1829), Poetical Portraits, No.III

• Praise — actual personal praise— oftener frets and embarrasses than it encourages. It is too small when too near.
  • Letitia Elizabeth Landon, The New Monthly Magazine (1835), 'On the Character of Mrs. Hemans’s Writings'

• You are pretty,—we know it; and young,—it is true; and rich,—who can deny it? But when you praise yourself extravagantly, Fabulla, you appear neither rich, nor pretty, nor young.
  • Martial, Epigrams (c. 80-104 AD), Book I, Epigram 64.

• 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 (1667; 1674), Book V, line 197.

• And touch'd their golden harps, and hymning praised
  God and his works.
  • John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book VII, line 258.

• Of whom to be disprais'd were no small praise.
  • John Milton, Paradise Regained (1671), Book III, line 56.

• To what base ends, and by what abject ways,
  Are mortals urg'd through sacred lust of praise!
  • Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism (1709), line 520.

• Delightful praise!—like summer rose,
  That brighter in the dew-drop glows,
  The bashful maiden's cheek appear'd,
  For Douglas spoke, and Malcolm heard.
  • Walter Scott, Lady of the Lake (1810), Canto II, Stanza 24.

• Praising what is lost
  Makes the remembrance dear.
  • William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well (1600s), Act V, scene 3, line 19.

• Thou wilt say anon he is some kin to thee,
  Thou spend'st such high-day wit in praising him.
  • William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice (late 1590s), Act II, scene 9, line 97.

• Our praises are our wages.
  • William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale (c. 1610-11), Act I, scene 2, line 94.

• Remember, I have not appointed you as commanders and tyrants over the people. I have sent you as leaders instead, so that the people may follow your example. Give the Muslims their rights and do not beat them lest they become abused. Do not praise them unduly, lest they fall into the error of conceit. Do not keep your doors shut in their faces, lest the more powerful of them eat up the weaker ones. And do not behave as if you were superior to them, for that is tyranny over them.
  • Umar as quoted in Omar the Great : The Second Caliph Of Islam (1962) by Muhammad Shibli Numani, Vol. 2, p. 33

• I grant the man is vain who writes for praise.
  Praise no man e'er deserved who sought no more.
  • Edward Young, Night Thoughts (1742-1745), Night V, line 3.

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 624-25.

• Praise undeserved is satire in disguise.
  • Henry Broadhurst, British Beauties. Epigram in the Garland signed B. (1721). Attributed also to Dr. Kendrick. Appears also in Tonson's Miscellanies. Anon. The Celebrated Beauties of the British Court.

• Trahimur omnes laudis studio, et optimus quisque maxime gloria ducitur.
  • We are all excited by the love of praise, and the noblest are most influenced by glory.
  • Cicero, Oratio Pro Licinio Archia, XI.

• Lætus sum
  Laudari me abs te, pater, laudato viro.
  • I am pleased to be praised by a man so praised as you, father. [Words used by Hector.]
  • Quoted by Cicero, Tusc. Quæst, IV. 31, 67; Epist, Book XV. 6.

• Earth, with her thousand voices, praises God.
  • Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Hymn Before Sunrise in the Vale of Chamouni, last line.

• Praise the bridge that carried you over.
  • George Colman the Younger, Heir-at-Law, Act I, scene 1.

• When needs he must, yet faintly then he praises;
  Somewhat the deed, much more the means he raises:
  So marreth what he makes, and praising most, dispraises.
  • Phineas Fletcher, The Purple Island, Canto VII, Stanza 67.

• Long open panegyric drags at best,
  And praise is only praise when well address'd.
  • John Gay, Epistle I, line 29.

• Good people all, with one accord,
  Lament for Madame Blaize,
  Who never wanted a good word—
  From those who spoke her praise.
  • Oliver Goldsmith, Elegy on Mrs. Mary Blaize.

• Praise me not too much,
  Nor blame me, for thou speakest to the Greeks
  Who know me.
  • Homer, The Iliad, Book X, line 289. Bryant's translation.

• Praise from a friend, or censure from a foe,
  Are lost on hearers that our merits know.
  • Homer, The Iliad, Book X, line 293. Pope's translation.

• Laudator temporis acti.
  • A eulogist of past times.
  • Horace, Ars Poetica (18 BC), 173.

• Principibus placuisse viris nou ultima laus est.
  • To please great men is not the last degree of praise.
  • Horace, Epistles, I. 17. 35.

• A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice.
  • François de La Rochefoucauld, Maxims. No. 152.

• Cela est beau, et je vous louerais davantage si vous m'aviez loué moins.
  • That is fine, and I would have praised you more had you praised me less.
  • Attributed to Louis XIV.

• The sweeter sound of woman's praise.
  • Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, Lines Written on the Night of 30th of July, 1847.

• Approbation from Sir Hubert Stanley is praise indeed.
  • Thomas Morton, Cure for the Heartache, Act V, scene 2.

• Solid pudding against empty praise.
  • Alexander Pope, The Dunciad, Book I, line 54.

• Praise undeserved is scandal in disguise.
  • Alexander Pope, First Epistle of Second Book of Horace.

• Id facere laus est quod decet, non quod licet.
  • He deserves praise who does not what he may, but what he ought.
  • Seneca the Younger, Octavia, 454.

• We bow our heads before Thee, and we laud
  And magnify Thy name, Almighty God!
  But Man is Thy most awful instrument,
  In working out a pure intent.
  • William Wordsworth, Ode, Imagination ne'er before Content.

• With faint praises one another damn.
  • William Wycherley, Plain Dealer, Prologue.

• The most pleasing of all sounds that of your own praise.
  • Xenophon, Hiero, I. 14. Watson's translation.

• The love of praise, howe'er conceal'd by art,
  Reigns more or less, and glows, in ev'ry heart.
  • Edward Young, The Love of Fame, Satire I, line 51.

See also

• Boasting
• Criticism
• Flattery