Approbation Quotes

“Respect cannot be inherited, respect is the result of right actions.”
― Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words

“Hang your merit. I don't seek anyone's approbation.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“To lose the approbation of my dog is a thing too horrible to contemplate.”
― Barbara Dana, A Voice of Her Own: Becoming Emily Dickinson

“Whenever you commend, add a compelling reason for doing so; it is this which distinguishes the approbation of a man of sense from the flattery of sycophants and the admiration of fools.”
― Richard Steele

“One night, the Duarte girl, sang poems set to music in a voice so clear I felt my soul rise up inside my ear. In a garden of clematis, with servants dressed like Gypsies placing candles in the trees, we assembled on the grass, between a Belgian wood and {the Duchess of Lorraine}'s glassy pond. In a pale orange gown I read two pieces I'd prepared...When the ladies clapped their approval in the dark, everything, to me, was suddenly bright and near.”
― Danielle Dutton, Margaret the First

“He [Jake Bonner] hadn't encountered this degree of writerly approbation for a couple of years, and it was incredible how quickly all of the narcotically warm feelings came rushing back. This was what it was to be admired, and thoughtfully admired at that, by someone who knew exactly how hard it was to write a good and transcendent sentence of prose! He had once thought life would be crowded with encounters just like this, not just with fellow writers and devoted readers (of his ever-growing, ever-deepening -oeuvre-) but with students (perhaps, ultimately, at much better programs) thrilled to have been assigned Jacob Finch Bonner, the rising young novelist, as their supervising writer/instructor. The kind of teacher you could grab a beer with after the workshop ended!

Not that Jake had ever grabbed a beer with one of his students.”
― Jean Hanff Korelitz, The Plot

“Like many young women, I mistakenly thought that the best way of feeling better about myself was to get other people to like me and to attempt to survive on the fumes of their approbation”
― Elizabeth Day, How to Fail