Never promise more than you can perform.
Publilius SyrusRead
Admonish your friends privately, but praise them openly.
Interpretation
It's better to give criticism in private and show appreciation publicly.
This quote emphasizes the importance of handling feedback in a relationship. When offering constructive criticism, it should be done privately to avoid embarrassment, while public praise strengthens bonds and encourages good behavior among friends. This balance promotes honesty and support in friendships.
In practice
In a speech at a friend's celebration, I would emphasize their strengths rather than vulnerabilities.
Never promise more than you can perform.
Pain forces even the innocent to lie.
In a heated argument we are apt to lose sight of the truth.
What a tragedy is help where it harms what it supports!
The miser is as much in want of what he has as of what he has not.
He who lives only for himself is truly dead to others.
No one knows you like a person with whom you've shared a childhood. No one will ever understand you in quite the same way.
As for rosemary, I let it run all over my garden walls, not only because my bees love it but because it is the herb sacred to remembrance and to friendship, whence a sprig of it hath a dumb language.
Again and again, I learn how much friendship enriches my life, bringing warmth, assurance, humour, inspiration, a sense of security. It depends on honesty, trust, loyalty. It's about giving. It's for sharing the good times, but also the tough times, hurt, grief, sadness.
I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.
Into the dark night Resignedly I go, I am not so afraid of the dark night As the friends I do not know, I do not fear the night above As I fear the friends below.
If you want to keep a friend, never test him.
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