Compliments: Best Of

“You are this dramatic character I couldn’t of made up in the wildest corners of my imagination.”

I don’t know if the woman who said the words I wrote above meant them as a compliment, but I took them as such and I’ll never forget them because that is what the best compliments do. They stick to our skulls like Post-It notes, reminding us why we’re great or important or unique or special.

Compliments, unlike gifts, are always better to receive than to give. Giving a compliment, as writer Tom Chiarella writes in his Esquire article, “The Perfect Compliment”* is hard. So hard in fact, sometimes it’s not even worth giving, which is something I suggested in the post I wrote yesterday**.

But receiving a compliment, a true, genuine compliment is as good as finding money on the street, if the amount of money were over $20. And if it comes from a stranger, than it’s going to take $50 to match that feeling, because compliments from strangers always sound like good songs we haven’t heard in a long time.

Thinking about compliments and what they mean to us, begs the question, what are some of your most memorable compliments?

Below are some of the most memorable compliments I have ever received from  strangers. Check them out and then, if you can, write a couple of the best compliments you ever received in the Comments section.

On my writing, a young kid once told me…

I’m trying to write like you, man.

On the way I look, a girl working the door of a party I went to by myself once told me…

As cute as you are, you’re by yourself? Where you gonna be? Soon as I get done with these names, I’m buying you a drink.

On my work ethic, a father and his young son were eating at the restaurant I worked for in high school. The father points to me and says  to his son…

You see what he’s doing right there? Watch him work because that’s how you should work when you have a job.

On my intelligence, the editor-in-chief of a major men’s magazine once told me…

I’ve met a lot of people. You’re one of the smartest.

So there it is folks, some of the most memorable compliments I’ve received. There are plenty more, but I’d rather hear yours. Go!

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* I can’t find it, but you should try to find Tom Chiarella’s article, “The Perfect Compliment” on Esquire.com

** The post I wrote yesterday: “Why I Look At Her”