Saturday, September 11, 2010
Unwanted Praise
Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosophers 6.5 (Life of Antisthenes, tr. R.D. Hicks):
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Once, when he was applauded by rascals, he remarked, "I am horribly afraid I have done something wrong."Id. 6.8:
ἐπαινούμενός ποτε ὑπὸ πονηρῶν, ἔφη, "ἀγωνιῶ μή τι κακὸν εἴργασμαι."
"Many men praise you," said one. "Why, what wrong have I done?" was his rejoinder.Charlotte Brontë, Shirley (chapter 30):
πρὸς τὸν εἰπόντα "πολλοί σε ἐπαινοῦσι," "τί γάρ," ἔφη, "κακὸν πεποίηκα;"
On abuse, on reproach, on calumny, it is easy to smile; but painful indeed is the panegyric of those we contemn.C.S. Lewis, Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1967), p. 44:
Fatuous praise from a manifest fool may hurt more than any depreciation.
