“Xenophon says that there is no sound more pleasing than one's own praises.”

— Plutarch

Whether an Aged Man ought to meddle in State Affairs
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

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Plutarch 251

ancient Greek historian and philosopher 46–127

Frank Crane (1861–1928) American Presbyterian minister

Four Minute Essays Vol. 7 (1919), A School for Living

“Among the smaller duties of life I hardly know any one more important than that of not praising where praise is not due.”

Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English writer and clergyman

Lecture IX : On the Conduct of the Understanding
Elementary Sketches of Moral Philosophy (1849)

“Vanity and narcissism — the compulsive need to be admired and praised — undermine one's courage, for one then fights on someone else's conviction rather than one's own.”

Rollo May (1909–1994) US psychiatrist

Source: Man’s Search for Himself (1953), p. 177

“The sweeter sound of woman’s praise.”

Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay (1800–1859) British historian and Whig politician

Lines written in August, 1847

“I recommend to you, in my last, an innocent piece of art: that of flattering people behind their backs, in presence of those who, to make their own court, much more than for your sake, will not fail to repeat, and even amplify, the praise to the party concerned. This is of all flattery the most pleasing, and consequently the most effectual.”

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) British statesman and man of letters

22 May 1749
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)

“The reason why so few persons are agreeable in conversation is that each thinks more of what he desires to say, than of what the others say, and that we make bad listeners when we want to speak. Yet it is necessary to listen to those who talk, we should give them the time they want, and let them say even senseless things; never contradict or interrupt them; on the contrary, we should enter into their mind and taste, illustrate their meaning, praise anything they say that deserves praise, and let them see we praise more from our choice than from agreement with them. To please others we should talk on subjects they like and that interest them, avoid disputes upon indifferent matters, seldom ask questions, and never let them see that we pretend to be better informed than they are.”

François de La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680) French author of maxims and memoirs

Reflections on Various Subjects (1665–1678), V. On Conversation

“Since sounds have no natural connection with our ideas … the doubtfulness and uncertainty of their signification … has its cause more in the ideas they stand for than in any incapacity there is in one sound more than another to signify any idea.”

John Locke book An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Book III, Ch. 9, sec. 4
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689)

“It is salutary to train oneself to be no more affected by censure than by praise…”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Summing Up

Source: The Summing Up (1938), p. 223

“The desire for praise is more imperative than the desire for food and shelter.”

Eric Hoffer (1898–1983) American philosopher

Entry (1952)
Eric Hoffer and the Art of the Notebook (2005)
Context: This food-and-shelter theory concerning man's efforts is without insight. Our most persistent and spectacular efforts are concerned not with the preservation of what we are but with the building up of an imaginary conception of ourselves in the opinion of others. The desire for praise is more imperative than the desire for food and shelter.

“Doth perfect beauty stand in need of praise at all? Nay; no more than law, no more than truth, no more than loving kindness, nor than modesty.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

IV, 20
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book IV

“Xenophon says that there is no sound more pleasing than one's own praises.”

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Plutarch 251

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