“To pay compliments to the one we love is the first method of caressing, a demi-audacity venturing. A compliment is something like a kiss through a veil.”

“The greatest compliment one can pay a master is to compare him with Capablanca.”

“We pay a person the compliment of acknowledging his superiority whenever we lie to them.”

“Women are so much in love with compliments that rather than want them, they will compliment one another, yet mean no more by it than the men do.”

“You pay God a compliment by asking great things of Him.”

“Nowadays we are all of us so hard up that the only pleasant things to pay are compliments. They're the only things we can pay.”

“Perfect equality, and perfect despotism, are theories equally unreducible to practice; but there are many fine sentiments belonging to the first, and there is singular fascination in a fine sentiment—we pay ourselves a compliment by uttering it.”

“To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.”

“Reading a poem in translation is like kissing a woman through a veil.”

“A light compliment was never yet breathed by love.”