We refuse praise from a desire to be praised twice.
[Le refus des louanges est un désir d’être loué deux fois.]
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶149 (1665-1678) [tr. Kronenberger (1959)]
(Source)
Present since the 1st edition. Brund/Friswell note a variant 1665 version which they translate: "The modesty which pretends to refuse praise is but in truth a desire to be praised more highly."
See also ¶327, and Chesterfield (1750).
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:That Modesty which stands so much upon the refusal of [praises], is indeed but a desire of having such as are more delicate.
[tr. Davies (1669), ¶151]He that refuses Praises the first time it is offered, does it, because he would hear it a second.
[tr. Stanhope (1694), ¶150]A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice.
[pub. Donaldson (1783), ¶368; ed. Lepoittevin-Lacroix (1797), ¶143]Resistance to praise is a desire to be praised twice.
[ed. Carvill (1835), ¶325]A refusal of praise; is a desire to be praised twice.
[ed. Gowens (1851), ¶152]The refusal of praise is only the wish to be praised twice.
[tr. Bund/Friswell (1871), ¶149]We decline commendation that we may be twice commended.
[tr. Heard (1917), ¶149]To disclaim admiration is to desire it in double measure.
[tr. Stevens (1939), ¶149]The refusal to accept praise is the desire to be praised twice over.
[tr. FitzGibbon (1957), ¶149]To refuse to accept praise is to want to be praised twice over.
[tr. Tancock (1959), ¶149]The refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice over.
[tr. Siniscalchi (c. 1994)]The refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice.
[tr. Whichello (2016) ¶149]
