PRAISE
Quotes
1
He writes so well he makes me feel like putting the quill back in the goose.
— Fred Allen
2
Well done is better than well said.
— Benjamin Franklin
3
I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House — with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dines alone.
— John F. Kennedy
4
They say, “Gee, you look great.” That means they thought you looked like hell before.
— Richard M. Nixon
5
The advantage of doing one’s praising for oneself is that one can lay it on thick and exactly in the right places.
— Samuel Butler
6
His life was gentle and the elements so mixed in him that nature might stand on its feet and say to all the world — this was a man!
— William Shakespeare
7
This is a moment that I deeply wish my parents could have lived to share. My father would have enjoyed what you have so generously said of me — and my mother would have believed it.
— Lyndon B. Johnson
8
We recognize that flattery is poison, but its perfume intoxicates us.
— Charles Varlet de La Grange
9
Baloney is the unvarnished lie laid on so thick you hate it. Blarney is flattery laid on so thin you love it.
— Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
10
Flattery is all right — if you don’t inhale.
— Adlai E. Stevenson
11
Some people pay a compliment as if they expected a receipt.
— Kin Hubbard
12
A compliment is something like a kiss through a veil.
— Victor Hugo
13
Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers that begat us.
— Ecclesiasticus 44:1
14
I will praise any man that will praise me.
— William Shakespeare
15
Flattery is like cologne water, to be smelt of, not swallowed.
— Josh Billings
16
I can live for two months on a good compliment.
— Mark Twain
17
It is more difficult to praise rightly than to blame.
— Thomas Fuller
18
Praise is the only gift which people are really grateful.
— Marguerite, Countess of Blessington
19
Whenever the occasion arose, he rose to the occasion.
— Jonathan Brown, on Diego Velazquez
20
A man doesn’t live by bread alone. He needs buttering up once in a while.
— Robert H. Henry
21
To withhold deserved praise lest it should make its object conceited is as dishonest as to withhold payment of a just debt lest your creditor should spend the money badly.
— George Bernard Shaw
22
The greatest honor that can come to man is the appreciation and high regard of his fellow man.
— H. G. Mendelson
Sayings
1
One has only to die to be praised.
— German proverb
2
You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.
3
If you think that praise is due, now’s the time to show it, ‘cause a man can’t read his tombstone when he’s dead.
4
A word of encouragement during failure is worth more than a directory of praise following success.
5
An actor is like a cigar; the more you puff him the smaller he gets.
Jokes
1
Novice golfer to husband, teeing off: “Now tell me if you notice anything I’m doing right.”
2
The kindhearted department head was delighted when a less-than-dazzling employee decided to move on, but stumped when he was asked for a recommendation. Finally, after much head-scratching, he wrote, “Mr. Marks worked for me for a long time, and when you have known him as long as I have, you will undoubtedly share my opinion of him.”