A good name is fitly compared to a precious ointment, and when we are praised with skill and decency, it is indeed the most agreeable perfume: but if too strongly admitted into a brain of a less vigorous and happy texture, it will, like too strong and odour, overcome the senses, and prove pernicious to those nerves it was intended to refresh.

Richard Steele (1672-1729) Anglo-Irish writer, journalist, playwright, politician

Essay (1711-12-03), The Spectator, No. 238
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The comparison is in the Bible, Ecclesiastes 7:1.