The measure of achievement is not winning awards. It’s doing something that you appreciate, something you believe is worthwhile. I think of my strawberry souffle. I did that at least twenty-eight times before I finally conquered it.
Quotations about:
appreciation
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
I am not concerned that other people do not understand me. I worry that I do not understand other people.
[不患人之不己知、患不知人也]
Confucius (c. 551- c. 479 BC) Chinese philosopher, sage, politician [孔夫子 (Kǒng Fūzǐ, K'ung Fu-tzu, K'ung Fu Tse), 孔子 (Kǒngzǐ, Chungni), 孔丘 (Kǒng Qiū, K'ung Ch'iu)]
The Analects [論語, 论语, Lúnyǔ], Book 1, verse 16 (1.16) (6th C. BC – AD 3rd C.) [tr. Li (2020)]
(Source)
(Source (Chinese)). See also 4.14, 14.30, 15.19. Alternate translations:
I will not be afflicted at men's not knowing me; I will be afflicted that I do not know men.
[tr. Legge (1861)]
It does not greatly concern me that men do not know me; my great concern is, my not knowing them.
[tr. Jennings (1895)]
One should not be concerned not to be understood of men; one should be concerned not to understand men.
[tr. Ku Hung-Ming (1898)]
I will not grieve that men do not know me; I will grieve that I do not know men.
[tr. Soothill (1910)]
Not worried that men do not know me, but that I do not understand men.
[tr. Pound (1933)]
[The good man] does not grieve that other people do not recognize his merits. His only anxiety is lest he should fail to recognize theirs.
[tr. Waley (1938)]
It is not the failure of others to appreciate your abilities that should trouble you, but rather your failure to appreciate theirs.
[tr. Lau (1979)]
One does not worry about the fact that other people do not appreciate one. One worries about not appreciating other people.
[tr. Dawson (1993)]
Don't worry if people don't recognize your merits; worry that you may not recognize theirs.
[tr. Leys (1997)]
Do not worry about that others do not understand me, just worry about that I do not understand others.
[tr. Cai/Yu (1998)]
Don't worry about not being acknowledged by others; worry about failing to acknowledge them.
[tr. Ames/Rosemont (1998)]
He does not worry that others do not know him; he worries that he does not know others.
[tr. Brooks/Brooks (1998)]
Don't grieve when people fail to recognize your ability. Grieve when you fail to recognize theirs.
[tr. Hinton (1998)]
Do not be concerned about whether or not others know you; be concerned about whether or not you know others.
[tr. Slingerland (2003)]
Don’t worry about whether other people understand you. Worry about whether you understand other people.
[tr. Watson (2007)]
Do not worry that other people do not know you. But be concerned that you do not know them.
[tr. Annping Chin (2014)]
The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]
The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 1: The Fellowship of the Ring, Book 2, ch. 6 “Lothlórien” [Haldir] (1954)
(Source)
Youth is full of sunshine and life. Youth is happy, because it has the ability to see beauty. When this ability is lost, wretched old age begins, decay, unhappiness. […] Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.
Franz Kafka (1883-1924) Czech-Austrian Jewish writer
In Gustav Janouch, Conversations with Kafka (1951; 1971 ed.)
Thare would be a grate supply ov wit and humor in this world, if we would only giv others the same credit for being witty that we claim for ourselfs.
[There would be a great supply of wit and humor in this world, if we would only give others the same credit for being witty that we claim for ourselves.]
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, “Mollassis Kandy” (1874)
(Source)
The aim of life is appreciation; there is no sense in not appreciating things; and there is no sense in having more of them if you have less appreciation of them.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
The Autobiography of G. K. Chesterton (1936)
(Source)
Do not be chary of appreciation. Hearts are unconsciously hungry for it.
Phillips Brooks (1835-1893) American clergyman, hymnist
“Destruction and Fulfilment,” Sermon 12, Twenty Sermons, 4th Series (1887)
(Source)
Sermon on Matt. 17.
You have it easily in your power to increase the sum total of this world’s happiness now. How? By giving a few words of sincere appreciation to someone who is lonely or discouraged. Perhaps you will forget tomorrow the kind words you say today, but the recipient may cherish them over a lifetime.
Dale Carnegie (1888-1955) American writer, lecturer
In Dorothy Carnegie, The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking (1962)
She ate her trifle, reflecting that grinding poverty, though loathsome while one is in it, has the advantage of making one enjoy money in a way denied to the rich-from-birth.
The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Nature,” ch. 8, Nature: Addresses and Lectures (1849)
(Source)
You remember what people say when they are sick? What do they say? That after all, nothing is pleasanter than health. But then they never knew this to be the greatest of pleasures until they were ill.
Plato (c.428-347 BC) Greek philosopher
The Republic, Book 9
FIRST GOD: Show interest in her goodness — for no one can be good for long if goodness is not in demand.
Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) German poet, playwright, director, dramaturgist
The Good Person of Szechwan [Der gute Mensch von Sezuan], Scene 1a (1941) [tr. Bentley (1947)]
There are reproaches that compliment, and compliments that disparage.
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Maxims], #148 (1665) [tr. Kronenberger (1959)]
But we live through the fine days without noticing them; only when we fall on evil ones do we wish to have back the former. With sour faces we let a thousand bright and pleasant hours slip by unenjoyed and afterwards vainly sigh for their return when times are trying and depressing. Instead of this, we should cherish every present moment that is bearable, even the most ordinary, which with such indifference we now let slip by, and even with impatience push on.
[Aber wir verleben unsre schönen Tage, ohne sie zu bemerken: erst wann die schlimmen kommen, wünschen wir jene zurück. Tausend heitere, angenehme Stunden lassen wir, mit verdrießlichem Gesicht, ungenossen an uns vorüberziehn, um nachher, zur trüben Zeit, mit vergeblicher Sehnsucht ihnen nachzuseufzen. Statt dessen sollten wir jede erträgliche Gegenwart, auch die alltägliche, welche wir jetzt so gleichgültig vorüberziehn lassen, und wohl gar noch ungeduldig nachschieben.]
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) German philosopher
Parerga and Paralipomena, Vol. 1, “Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life [Aphorismen zur Lebensweisheit],” ch. 5 “Counsels and Maxims [Paränesen und Maximen],” § 2.5 (1851) [tr. Payne (1974)]
(Source)
(Source (German)). Alternate translation:
But we live through our days of happiness without noticing them; it is only when evil comes upon us that we wish them back. A thousand gay and pleasant hours are wasted in ill-humor; we let them slip by unenjoyed, and sigh for them in vain when the sky is overcast. Those present moments that are bearable, be they never so trite and common, -- passed by in indifference, or, it may be, impatiently pushed away.
[tr. Saunders (1890)]
I know, indeed, of nothing more subtly satisfying and cheering than a knowledge of the real good will and appreciation of others. Such happiness does not come with money, nor does it flow from a fine physical state. It cannot be brought. But it is the keenest joy, after all, and the toiler’s truest and best reward.
William Dean Howells (1837-1920) American author, literary critic, and playwright
Interview with Orison Swett Marden, Success Magazine
(Source)
Quoted in Marden, How They Succeeded: Life Stories of Successful Men Told by Themselves, ch. 11 (1901).
Every man supposes himself not to be fully understood or appreciated.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Journal (6 May 1840)
Appreciate Me Now, and Avoid the Rush.
Ashleigh Brilliant (b. 1933) Anglo-American writer, epigramist, cartoonist
Title of 1981 book
Virtue has never been as respectable as money.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Innocents Abroad, ch. 55 (1869)
The greatest humiliation in life, is to work hard on something from which you expect great appreciation, and then fail to get it.
Edgar Watson "Ed" Howe (1853-1937) American journalist and author [E. W. Howe]
Ventures in Common Sense, “Miscellany of Life” (1919)
(Source)
Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise.
Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) English statesman, wit [Philip Dormer Stanhope]
Letter to his son, #225 (17 May 1750)
(Source)
Health is not valued, till Sickness comes.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English writer, physician
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs, #2478 (1732)
(Source)
I believe that appreciation is a holy thing, that when we look for what’s best in the person we happen to be with at the moment, we’re doing what God does; so in appreciating our neighbor, we’re participating in something truly sacred.
Fred Rogers (1928-2003) American educator, minister, songwriter, television host ["Mister Rogers"]
Commencement Address, Marquette College (May 2001)
(Source)
Rogers used the same comment at the Middlebury College commencement.
TECMESSA: Ignorant men
Don’t know what good they hold in their hands until
They’ve flung it away.Sophocles (496-406 BC) Greek tragic playwright
Ajax, l. 964 [tr. Moore (1959)]
Alt trans.:
- “Men of perverse opinion do not know / The excellence of what is in their hands, / Till some one dash it from them.” [George Young (1888)]
- "Men of ill judgement oft ignore the good / That lies within their hands, till they have lost it."
- "For those who are base in judgement do not know the good they hold in their hands until they cast it off."
All charming people have something to conceal, usually their total dependence on the appreciation of others.
Cyril Connolly (1903-1974) English intellectual, literary critic and writer.
Enemies of Promise, ch. 16 (1938)
I now perceive one immense omission in my Psychology— the deepest principle of Human Nature is the craving to be appreciated, and I left it out altogether from the book, because I had never had it gratified till now.
William James (1842-1910) American psychologist and philosopher
Letter to his Philosophy 2A class at Radcliffe College (6 Apr 1896)
The class had sent him a potted azalea at Easter. Full letter:
Dear Young Ladies, I am deeply touched by your remembrance. It is the first time anyone ever treated me so kindly, so you may well believe that the impression on the heart of the lonely sufferer will be even more durable than the impression on your minds of all the teachings of Philosophy 2A. I now perceive one immense omission in my Psychology—the deepest principle of Human Nature is the craving to be appreciated, and I left it out altogether from the book, because I had never had it gratified until now. I fear that you have let lose a demon in me, and that all my actions will now be for the sake of such rewards.
