Never promise more than you can perform.
Publilius SyrusRead
Reprove your friends in secret, praise them openly.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Criticism should be private, while compliments should be public.
This quote emphasizes the importance of how we communicate with our friends. It suggests that when addressing a friend's shortcomings, it is more respectful and constructive to do so privately, preserving their dignity and trust, while praise should be shared openly to encourage and uplift them in front of others. This approach helps maintain healthy relationships by balancing honesty and support.
Themes
FriendshipPraiseReproveCommunicationTrust
In practice
Example use cases
A leader might use this quote during a team meeting to explain how to provide feedback to coworkers.
More from Publilius Syrus
All quotes βPain forces even the innocent to lie.
Publilius SyrusRead
In a heated argument we are apt to lose sight of the truth.
Publilius SyrusRead
Admonish your friends privately, but praise them openly.
Publilius SyrusRead
What a tragedy is help where it harms what it supports!
Publilius SyrusRead
The miser is as much in want of what he has as of what he has not.
Publilius SyrusRead
Similar quotes
You were the one who made things different, you were the one who took me in. You were the one thing I could count on, above all, you were my friend.
Tom PettyRead
Conversation with a friend will only bear good fruit of knowledge when both think only of the matter under consideration and forget that they are friends.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
I don't know what I would do in the world without [female friends] for advice, for comfort, for simply knowing that there is someone out there who knows me as I am, and loves me despite and because of it.
Anna QuindlenRead
Only solitary men know the full joys of friendship. Others have their family; but to a solitary and an exile, his friends are everything.
Willa CatherRead
We ought, all of us, to realize each other in this intense, pathetic, and important way. If you say that this is absurd, and that we cannot be in love with everyone at once, I merely point out to you that, as a matter of fact, certain persons do exist with an enormous capacity for friendship and for taking delight in other people's lives; and that such persons know more of truth than if their hearts were not so big.
William JamesRead
Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil.
Baltasar GracianRead