William Wycherley - Friedrich Nietzsche - Marcel Proust - Billy Bray - Mark Twain - Christopher Hitchens - William Shakespeare - W Somerset Maugham - W B Yeats - Joseph Addison - Samuel Butler - Abraham Cowley - John Gay - W S Gilbert - Samuel Johnson - Ezra 3:11-13 - Psalms 106:1 - Psalms 144:9 - Psalms 146:1 - Psalms 148:1&2 - Psalms 149:1 - Psalms 150:1 - Isaiah 42:10 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Heinrich Heine - Marcus Tullius Cicero - Marilyn Monroe - John Steinbeck - Thomas Jefferson - Plutarch - Albert Einstein - Kevin Keegan -
You who scribble, yet hate all who write ...
And with faint praises one another damn. William Wycherley, The Plain Dealer, 1677, re drama critics
I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time. Friedrich Nietzsche
Undeserved praise causes more pangs of conscience later than undeserved blame, but probably only for this reason, that our power of judgment are more completely exposed by being over praised than by being unjustly underestimated. Friedrich Nietzsche
Some are made modest by great praise, others insolent. Friedrich Nietzsche
What can everyone do? Praise and blame. This is human virtue, this is human madness. Friedrich Nietzsche
It has been said that the highest praise of God consists in the denial of Him by the atheist, who finds creation so perfect that he can dispense with a creator. Marcel Proust
I can’t help praising the Lord. As I go along the street, I lift up one foot, and it seems to say ‘Glory’; and I lift up the other, and it seems to say ‘Amen’; and so they keep up like that all the time I am walking. Billy Bray, cited William James, Varieties of Religious Experience
If I were to construct a God I would furnish Him with some way and qualities and characteristics which the Present lacks. He would not stoop to ask for any man's compliments, praises, flatteries; and He would be far above exacting them. I would have Him as self-respecting as the better sort of man in these regards.
He would not be a merchant, a trader. He would not buy these things. He would not sell, or offer to sell, temporary benefits of the joys of eternity for the product called worship. I would have Him as dignified as the better sort of man in this regard.
He would value no love but the love born of kindnesses conferred; not that born of benevolences contracted for. Repentance in a man's heart for a wrong done would cancel and annul that sin; and no verbal prayers for forgiveness be required or desired or expected of that man.
In His Bible there would be no Unforgiveable Sin. He would recognize in Himself the Author and Inventor of Sin and Author and Inventor of the Vehicle and Appliances for its commission; and would place the whole responsibility where it would of right belong: upon Himself, the only Sinner.
He would not be a jealous God – a trait so small that even men despise it in each other.
He would not boast.
He would keep private Hs admirations of Himself; He would regard self-praise as unbecoming the dignity of his position.
He would not have the spirit of vengeance in His heart. Then it would not issue from His lips.
There would not be any hell – except the one we live in from the cradle to the grave.
There would not be any heaven – the kind described in the world’s Bibles.
He would spend some of His eternities in trying to forgive Himself for making man unhappy when he could have made him happy with the same effort and he would spend the rest of them in studying astronomy. Mark Twain, notebook
Why, if God was the creator of all things, were we supposed to ‘praise’ him so incessantly for doing what came to him naturally? Christopher Hitchens, God is Not Great p3
Here, contained within a hermetic quadrilateral of territory enclosed either by sea or by near-impenetrable frontiers, is a land entirely given over to adulation. Every waking moment of the citizen – the subject – is consecrated to praise of the Supreme Being and his Father. Every schoolroom resounds with it, every film and opera and play is devoted to it, every radio and television transmission is given up to it. So are all books and magazines and newspaper articles, all sporting events and all workplaces. I used to wonder what it would be like to have to sing everlasting praises, and now I know. ibid. pp247-248
If it were to be true, one would be living under a permanent surveillance, a round-the-clock celestial dictatorship that watched you while you slept; and could convict you of thought crime, could indict you for things you thought in the privacy of your own skull, and sentence you to quite a long stretch, namely an eternity of punishment for that. Or dangle not to me very attractive reward of life of eternal praise and grovelling and sprawling and singing the praises of someone who you are ordered to love; someone whom you must both love and fear ... Compulsory love – how fascinating. Christopher Hitchens, interview Divine Impulses
Worse than the sun in March,
This praise doth nourish agues. William Shakespeare, I Henry IV IV i 112-113, Hotspur to Vernon
People ask you for criticism, but they only want praise. W Somerset Maugham
It is salutary to train oneself to be no more affected by censure than by praise. W Somerset Maugham
But was there ever dog that praised his fleas? W B Yeats
And those who paint ’em truest praise ’em most. Joseph Addison, 1672-1719, English poet & dramatist
The advantage of doing one’s praising for oneself is that one can lay it on so thick and exactly in the right places. Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh
Nothing so soon the drooping spirits can raise
As praises from the men, whom all men praise. Abraham Cowley, 1618-67
Praising all alike, is praising none. John Gay, A Letter to a Lady, 1714
The idiot who praises, with enthusiastic tone,
All centuries but this, and every country but his own. W S Gilbert, The Mikado
All censure of a man’s self is oblique praise. It is in order to shew how much he can spare. Samuel Johnson
And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord; because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.
But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy:
So that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people: for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off. Ezra 3:11-13
Praise ye the Lord. O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Psalms 106:1
Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the name of the Lord; praise him, O ye servants of the Lord.
For I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all gods. Psalms 135:1&5
I will sing a new song unto thee, O God: upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee. Psalms 144:9
Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. Psalms 146:1
Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the heavens: praise him in the heights.
Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts. Psalms 148:1-2