Inspirational and Insightful Quotations #82 --- Bragging

The most obnoxious type of man: He who squeals when he loses, and brags when he wins.

---Carl J.G. Brown, Atchison Daily Globe, Atchison, Kan., Feb. 25, 1921.

If you let others do your bragging your ability is not apt to be overrated.

---Carl J.G. Brown, Atchison Daily Globe, Atchison, Kan., Jan. 6, 1925.

It is bad enough to be a loafer, but it is a disgrace to brag of it.

---Carl J.G. Brown, Atchison Daily Globe, Atchison, Kan., Feb. 19, 1924.

Persons who repent loudly are often just bragging.

---Carl J.G. Brown, Atchison Daily Globe, Atchison, Kan., Jan. 26, 1927.

A poor start gives you more to brag about after you have succeeded.

---James L. Dow, Lubbock Avalanche, Lubbock, Texas, Aug. 1, 1922.

A really busy man hasn’t much time to brag about what he does.

---E.W. “Ed” Howe, Atchison Daily Globe, Atchison, Kan., Feb. 2, 1909.

Brag is the most impudent form of the lie.

---E.W. “Ed” Howe, Youngstown Vindicator, Youngstown, Ohio, April 12, 1912.

The only people who brag about their wisdom are the unwise.

---Eugene Alexander “Gene” Howe, Atchison Daily Globe, Atchison, Kan., Feb. 8, 1922.

The man who does not brag on himself usually has reason to.

---Frank Hilton Greer, Oklahoma State Capital, Guthrie, Okla., Aug. 29, 1908.

The individual who does the most talking about his virtues usually has the smallest number of them.

---Frank Hilton Greer, Oklahoma State Capital, Guthrie, Okla., April 19, 1910.

When a man starts bragging that he has a lot on the ball, he's inviting somebody to bat him around.

---Clarin D. Ashby, Uintah Basin Standard, Roosevelt, Utah, Feb. 5, 1970.

Only brag when you have something to brag about and you won’t need much time to do all the bragging you’ll have to do.

---John L. Brown, Aurora Daily Star, Aurora, Ill., Feb. 6, 1922.

Bragging is simply the loud patter of little feats.

--‑Lee R. Call, Star Valley Independent, Afton, Wyo., Oct. 14, 1971.

When you brag about the fact that you do YOUR OWN THINKING, be sure you know what thinking it, and that you know how it’s done.

—Liston Dickson Elkins, Waycross Journal-Herald, Waycross, Ga., Sept. 18, 1944.

Lots of folks who brag about being in the uppercrust don’t stop to figure that it’s the filling of the pie that makes the crust worth eating.

—Liston Dickson Elkins, Waycross Journal-Herald, Waycross, Ga., Nov. 13, 1944.

The man who gives a dollar the charity and brags about it give more than a dollar—he gives everybody a pain.

---Liston Dickson Elkins, Waycross Journal-Herald, Waycross, Ga., Oct. 19, 1939.

When you hear a man bragging about how few mistakes he makes, you can usually figure he doesn’t work for a living.

---Liston Dickson Elkins, Waycross Journal-Herald, Waycross, Ga., Aug. 20. 1945.

The man who brags about his honesty probably is a liar as well as a windbag.

---Liston Dickson Elkins, Waycross Journal-Herald, Waycross, Ga., Nov. 6, 1934.

The fellow who is always bragging about what he is going to do tomorrow hasn’t much time to do anything today.

---Henry Edward Warner, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Richmond, Va., Nov. 11, 1915.

The chap who is everlastingly bragging about his honesty should be “overshadowed.”

---Henry Edward Warner, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Richmond, Va., Nov. 11, 1915.

With the man who is dumb, actions are louder than the words of a braggart.

---Henry Edward Warner, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Richmond, Va., Feb. 29, 1916.

Whenever I hear a fellow bragging aloud of being self-made, I wonder, how he ever got the specifications by the inspector.

---Henry Edward Warner, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Richmond, Va., April 2, 1919.

A braggart never enjoys defeat.

---Henry Edward Warner, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Richmond, Va., June 11, 1921.

Never attempt to outshoot a braggart.

---Roy L. Smith, Buffalo Courier-Express, Buffalo, N.Y., May 26, 1937.

The devil is very close to the man who is always bragging on himself.

---Elijah Powell Brown, Arizona Weekly Citizen, Tucson, Ariz., Jan. 16, 1892.

When a man brags of his virtues the devil is the first to applaud.

---Elijah Powell Brown, The Central Record, Lancaster, Ky., June 23, 1905.

It is hard to find the line between bragging and lying.

---Elijah Powell Brown, Dakota County Herald, Dakota City, Neb., Feb. 15, 1907.

The braggart deserves no one but himself.

---Elijah Powell Brown, Duluth Evening Herald, Duluth, Minn., April 19, 1902.

A self-made man never gets tired of bragging on his job.

---Elijah Powell Brown, Ohio Democrat, Logan, Ohio, Feb. 20, 1892.

The braggart deceives no one but himself.

---Elijah Powell Brown, Polk County News, Columbia, N.C., April 24, 1902.

In the pursuit of knowledge man never gets on the right track until he finds out that he doesn’t know enough to brag about it.

---Elijah Powell Brown, Warren Sheaf, Warren, Minn., Dec. 18, 1890.

The favorite employment of a conceited man is to brag on himself.

---Elijah Powell Brown, Norman Transcript, Norman, Okla., March 12, 1897.

Finding fault with others is only a roundabout way of bragging on self.

---Elijah Powell Brown, Dakota County Herald, Dakota City, Neb., Feb. 15, 1907.

We don’t mind hearing a fellow brag about his ancestors, except that the fellow who does it usually hasn’t anything else to brag about.

---John Merrill Chilcote, St. Joseph News-Press, St. Joseph, Mo., Feb. 14, 1952.

The fellow who brags about early rising gets nowhere with us. What’s the difference whether you waste your time in early morning or late at night? If you’ve nothing to do, you’re still wasting time.

---John Merrill Chilcote, St. Joseph News-Press, St. Joseph, Mo., Jan. 3, 1953.

When a fellow acquires quite a past and is in a position to brag about it he thinks it should justify his hopes for a great future.

---John Merrill Chilcote, St. Joseph News-Press, St. Joseph, Mo., Feb. 18, 1953.

When a fellow brags about himself it’s a pretty good sign nobody else is going to brag about him.

---John Merrill Chilcote, St. Joseph News-Press, St. Joseph, Mo., Jan. 16, 1954.

Some people brag by words, some by deeds, and some by implication. All three forms are equally dangerous.

---John Merrill Chilcote, St. Joseph News-Press, St. Joseph, Mo., Dec. 31, 1955.

The world will forgive you for not being handsome, provided, that is, that you don’t go around bragging about your good looks.

---John Merrill Chilcote, St. Joseph News-Press, St. Joseph, Mo., Feb. 17, 1956.

After all, self-confidence without common sense is merely a form of bragging under your breath.

---John Merrill Chilcote, St. Joseph News-Press, St. Joseph, Mo., June 3, 1965.

“I’m doing the best I can,” is sometimes an explanation; sometimes an apology; and in still other cases is outright bragging.

---John Merrill Chilcote, St. Joseph News-Press, St. Joseph, Mo., Jan. 17, 1967.

Bragging people are apt to brag most when they feel that no one thinks they have anything to brag about.

---Earl Riney, Church Management, Cleveland, Ohio, January 1956.

What is there about bragging that is so unlucky? If you will notice, the bragger is rarely the doer. No matter how hard a fellow tries to do what he brags he will do, he scarcely ever does it. Have you noticed that?

—Wickes Wamboldt, Waycross Journal-Herald, Waycross, Ga., Aug. 15, 1944.

Probably the most insistent influence back of the desire to brag is a feeling of inferiority. As I think of it, the men I have known who were the biggest braggers were men who had done little, or nothing, to brag about. They so keenly felt their inferiority that in self-defense in an effort to bolster up their own morale they bragged at every opportunity.

Nearly everyone yearns to be somebody. That yearning, when it does not satisfy itself with deeds, may attempt to get relief with words. Some persons pounce onto the most trivial of accomplishments and boast about them extravagantly.

There is really a pathetic side to the bragger, if we could see it. His whole being may crave achievement, but he may be held back by his equipment or by circumstances, or by both.

A child may get into the way of bragging through being made to feel that he is inferior. Instinctively he puts on a front a kind of protective coloring, as it were. Or he may brag because he knows he falls short of what he would like to be, and tries to make up for it by pretending.

Then there is the bragger who really does ring the bell, and is so delighted to find that he has done it that he wants everybody to know about it. Commonly persons who are generally successful do not talk about their accomplishments; they are used to them and take them as a matter of course. It is the person not accustomed to success who is keyed up by it. It is the newly rich who boast about their money and their material possessions. Persons accustomed to those things think about them only if they lose them.

Showing off may be only a happy pride in what one has done or can do. An instance of that is the little child who has just learned to turn a somersault and wants everybody to see him do it. He may be terribly crestfallen, and his spiritual seriously harmed if he is rebuked publicly for showing off; he should be admonished privately and understandingly.

Also, there is the chap who may not be proud of what he has done, but feels the need of getting credit for what he has done. He thinks that if he does not call attention to it, it may be overlooked; and he considers he needs that credit in his business—just as he wants credit for payment of a bill. Persons in political life, who are constantly being depreciated by their opponents, are apt to blow their own hors. “If I don’t,” said one public man, “nobody else will; and my enemies will run me down.”

All in all, the tendency to brag is the result of the inherent urge of mankind to rise to greater heights.

But bragging, like many other human impulses, needs to be controlled, and, if practiced at all, employed skillfully.

The press agent is the answer for the man who wishes to put himself over and do it modestly. But not everyone can afford a press agent.

---Wickes Wamboldt, Waycross Journal-Herald, Waycross, Ga., March 2, 1940.

One reader writes: “One of our neighbors is always showing off, always tells us where she’s going, where she’s been, what she has, what she does. Whenever she talks to any of us it’s only to brag—and it’s so tiresome.”

No doubt we all know people who have an acute case of “I” trouble. Some of them are good, and they know it. Some of them are not so good, and they don’t know it.

Let’s look a moment at two sides of the subject: In the first place, there is something wrong with a person who doesn’t have a reasonably good opinion of himself and reasonable pride in his possessions.

But there is also something wrong with the person who lets his ego get beyond reasonable bounds—and who becomes, as Shakespeare said, in “Much Ado About Nothing:” “the trumpet of his own virtues.”

Whenever a man has to be his own publicity agent he penalizes himself in the opinion of other people. He may be good, but he ought to let others say so rather than exhaust the subject himself. He should have learned as Pliny the Younger put it: “What would have been a great source of honor if another had related it, becomes nothing when the doer relates it himself.”

A talented young man some time ago calmly conceded that he was a better sculptor than Michelangelo. Maybe he was. It isn’t impossible. But to hear it come unblushingly from his own lips was embarrassing—embarrassing to his listeners, at least. But he didn’t seem to be the least bit embarrassed.

Even if it were true, it would have been so much better if someone else had said it. And we could not help but hear again the words of Horace: “What will this boaster produce worthy of such inflated language?”

It is quite natural that we should be very much wrapped up in ourselves, because after all we are ourselves. And since self-preservation is the first law of nature, self-praise is easy to understand. Nevertheless, an acute case of “I” trouble is and will continue to be socially unacceptable. And to hear a person openly become the object of his own adoration, soon turns his auditors sour on the subject.

Bragging comes natural to youngsters. But some of them soon learn, because their frank young friends don’t hesitate to tell them, that—

“If you would keep your ears from jeers,

These things keep meekly hid:

Myself and me, or my and mind,

And how I do or did” ---W.E. Norris

And yet many people grow old with the fault; people who have the brightest children in the world, the worst operation in the world, who have been through the worst experiences in the world, and, who are the best of whatever they are, and have the best of whatever there is—all of course according to their own admission.

Somehow they remind us of Emerson’s common on “cunning egotism:” “If I cannot brag of knowing something, then I brag of not knowing it.”

Some boasting is no doubt innocent enough, and some of it is done to make other people envious. But almost all of it is in bad taste unless it is done very deftly.

And so may we offer a few obvious observations, “to whom it may concern:”

Other people also have doctors who thought their operations were the worst they had ever seen.

Other people also have children who are very unusual for their age.

Other people also have the most amazing experiences.

We could add interminably to the list. But the point is apparent—that is, to all except those who really have “I” trouble. And they will continue incessantly to talk about them and theirs. And there really isn’t very much that anyone can do about it, except be bored.

---Richard L. Evans, Milwaukee Sentinel, Milwaukee, Wis., Oct. 3, 1948.