It is praiseworthy even to attempt a great action. [ La Rochefoucauld ]

It is a great happiness to be praised of them that are most praiseworthy. [ Sir P. Sidney ]

Virtue is so praiseworthy that wicked people practice it from self-interest. [ Vauvenargues ]

Necessity may render a doubtful act innocent, but it cannot make it praiseworthy. [ Joubert ]

Hatred itself may be a praiseworthy emotion if provoked in us by a lively love of good. [ Joubert ]

That which we truly call honourable is praiseworthy in its own nature, even though it should be praised by no one. [ Cicero ]

There is a species of ferocity in rejecting indiscriminately all kinds of praises; we should be accessible to those which are given to us by good people, who praise in us sincerely praiseworthy things. [ Bruyere ]

Whatever we may say against such collections which present authors in a disjointed form, they nevertheless bring about many excellent results. We are not always so composed, so full of wisdom, that we are able to take in at once the whole scope of a work according to its merits. Do we not mark in a book passages which seem, to have a direct reference to ourselves? Young people especially, who have failed in acquiring a complete cultivation of the mind, are roused in a praiseworthy way by brilliant quotations." [ Goethe ]