Just praise is only a debt, but flattery is a present.
Interpretation
True praise acknowledges someone's worth, while flattery is insincere and often self-serving.
This quote by Samuel Johnson highlights the distinction between genuine praise and empty compliments. True praise is a moral obligation that recognizes and honors someone's true merits or achievements, serving as a debt we owe to them. In contrast, flattery is often superficial, aimed at gaining favor without sincerity, and can be seen as a gift that may not reflect genuine admiration but rather ulterior motives. This distinction invites reflection on the nature of our compliments and the importance of sincerity in our interactions.
In practice
During a speech about genuine leadership, one could quote this to emphasize the importance of true recognition over mere flattery.
To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example.
He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.
To let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to throw away one of the greatest comforts of the weary pilgrimage.
Fly-fishing may be a very pleasant amusement; but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.
When any anxiety or gloom of the mind takes hold of you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaining; but exert yourselves to hide it, and by endeavoring to hide it you drive it away.
A fishing rod is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other.
I'm still learning, you know. At 80, I feel there is a lot I don't know.
Practice all movements slow and fast, soft and hard; the effectiveness of Jeet Kune-Do depends on split-second timing and reflexive action, which can be achieved only through repetitious practice.
He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.
There are no means of attaining faith and certainty except through the Qur'an.
I could say that all my books were conceived by the time I was twenty, although they were not to be written for another thirty or forty years. But perhaps this is true of most writers—the emotional storage is done very early on.
If you want to resolve a dispute or come out from conflict, the very first thing is to speak the truth. If you have a headache and tell the doctor you have a stomachache, how can the doctor help? You must speak the truth. The truth will abolish fear.
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