Careful Words

admire (v.)

  We always like those who admire us; we do not always like those whom we admire.

Isaac De Benserade (1612-1691): Maxim 294.

Yet let not each gay turn thy rapture move;

For fools admire, but men of sense approve.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Criticism. Part ii. Line 190.

Where none admire, 't is useless to excel;

Where none are beaux, 't is vain to be a belle.

Lord Lyttleton (1709-1773): Soliloquy on a Beauty in the Country.