You may set it down as a truth which admits of few exceptions, that those who ask your opinion really want your praise, and will be contented with nothing less.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1858-10), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)
Collected in The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, ch. 12 (1858)