Topic: National Compliment Day

Today is National Compliment Day, a day when folks are encouraged to pass along kind words to at least five different people. Before we pass along thoughts on compliments from five different people, we'll first pass along our compliments—that is, our regards or best wishes—to everyone seeking to elevate the mood of others today.

We begin with that most American of writers, Mark Twain. The humorist ate up admiring remarks, even going so far as to claim "I can live for two months on a good compliment."

Meanwhile, on the other side of the ocean, the Irish writer Oscar Wilde had a more droll take on things: "I don't like compliments and I don't see why a man should think he is pleasing a woman enormously when he says to her a whole heap of things that he doesn't mean."

The very British Lord Chesterfield, who earned many a compliment for the advice he gave his son, had a strong line on fishing for compliments. In his words, "Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise."

So what makes for a great compliment? We have two thoughts. According to the Scottish fantasy writer George MacDonald, "to be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved." But American philosopher Henry David Thoreau recalled "The greatest compliment . . . ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended my answer."

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