When and How to Talk of One's Self : Page 217

proverb declares to be odorous. "Eigenlob stinkt" — "Self-praise smells," say the Germans. Sometimes I have had my stomach turn dangerously as some otherwise respectable lady would tell us with a straight face, that, as she went shopping with her college-age daughter, the clerk said, "I see you are sisters." Another says, "Whenever we eat out, my husband says to our son John, 'They just can't put the personality into it that mother can, eh, John?' " A third says, less slyly, "I may not be able to do anything else, but I do keep my house spic and span." A man says, "My boss always says to me, 'Done already, John? How do you manage to do it?' " Regarding all such types of self-praise I would quote Hamlet's remark to the players: "Pray you, avoid it."