There is nothing harder to tolerate than hearing a person praise himself, especially if he praises his own learning; for those who are truly learned cannot help blushing even when others praise them on that score.
οὐδὲν οὕτως ἄκουσμα φορτικὸν ὡς ὁ καθ' ἑαυτοῦ ἔπαινος, καὶ ταῦτα ἐπὶ παιδείᾳ, ἐφ' ᾗ καὶ ἄλλων ἐπαινούντων ἐρυθριᾶν χρεὼν τοὺς ἀληθινῶς αὐτῆς ἐπηβόλους.
"A peculiar anthologic maze, an amusing literary chaos, a farrago of quotations, a mere olla podrida of quaintness, a pot pourri of pleasant delites, a florilegium of elegant extracts, a tangled fardel of old-world flowers of thought, a faggot of odd fancies, quips, facetiae, loosely tied" (Holbrook Jackson, Anatomy of Bibliomania) by a "laudator temporis acti," a "praiser of time past" (Horace, Ars Poetica 173).
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Monday, December 11, 2017
Self-Praise
Themistius, Orations 21 (259 b, tr. Robert J. Penella):