Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Praise
Praise undeserved is satire in disguise.
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. Bk. XV. 6.
Earth, with her thousand voices, praises God.
Coleridge—Hymn Before Sunrise in the Vale of Chamouni. Last line.
Praise the bridge that carried you over.
Geo. Colman (the Younger)—Heir-at-Law. Act I. Sc. 1.
Praise enough
To fill the ambition of a private man,
That Chatham’s language was his mother-tongue.
Cowper—The Task. Bk. II. L. 235.
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. St. 67.
Long open panegyric drags at best,
And praise is only praise when well address’d.
Gay. Ep. I. L. 29.
Good people all, with one accord,
Lament for Madame Blaize,
Who never wanted a good word—
From those who spoke her praise.
Goldsmith—Elegy on Mrs. Mary Blaize.
Praise me not too much,
Nor blame me, for thou speakest to the Greeks
Who know me.
Homer—Iliad. Bk. X. L. 289. Bryant’s trans.
Praise from a friend, or censure from a foe,
Are lost on hearers that our merits know.
Homer—Iliad. Bk. X. L. 293. Pope’s trans.
Laudator temporis acti.
A eulogist of past times.
Horace—Ars Poetica. 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.
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.
Macaulay—Lines Written on the Night of 30th of July, 1847.
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.
Milton—Paradise Lost. Bk. V. L. 197.
And touch’d their golden harps, and hymning praised
God and his works.
Milton—Paradise Lost. Bk. VII. L. 258.
Of whom to be disprais’d were no small praise.
Milton—Paradise Regained. Bk. III. L. 56.
Approbation from Sir Hubert Stanley is praise indeed.
Thos. Morton—Cure for the Heartache. Act V. Sc. 2.
Solid pudding against empty praise.
Pope—Dunciad. Bk. I. L. 54.
To what base ends, and by what abject ways,
Are mortals urg’d through sacred lust of praise!
Pope—Essay on Criticism. L. 520.
Praise undeserved is scandal in disguise.
Pope—First Epistle of Second Book of Horace.
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.
Scott—Lady of the Lake. Canto II. St. 24.
Id facere laus est quod decet, non quod licet.
He deserves praise who does not what he may, but what he ought.
Seneca—Octavia. 454.
Praising what is lost
Makes the remembrance dear.
All’s Well That Ends Well. Act V. Sc. 3. L. 19.
Thou wilt say anon he is some kin to thee,
Thou spend’st such high-day wit in praising him.
Merchant of Venice. Act II. Sc. 9. L. 97.
Our praises are our wages.
Winter’s Tale. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 94.
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.
Wordsworth—Ode. Imagination ne’er before Content.
With faint praises one another damn.
Wycherley—Plain Dealer. Prologue.
The love of praise, howe’er conceal’d by art,
Reigns more or less, and glows, in ev’ry heart.
Young—The Love of Fame. Satire I. L. 51.
I grant the man is vain who writes for praise.
Praise no man e’er deserved who sought no more.
Young—Night Thoughts. Night V. L. 3.
The most pleasing of all sounds that of your own praise.
Xenophon—Hiero. I. 14. Watson’s trans.