The mark of extraordinary merit is to see those most envious of it constrained to praise.

There is a level of quality that even resentment cannot talk around. Ordinary good work leaves a rival room to find fault, since most work has faults available. When someone who would dearly like to dismiss you finds themselves saying something admiring instead, you have passed a threshold that friendly praise could never have established. Their opinion is worth more because it is given against their own interest.

If you want a real reading on your work, note what the people who do not wish you well say about it. And when you find yourself unable to deny someone else’s quality, say so plainly, which costs less than you think.