SELF-PAT

One time the newspaper cartoonist H. T. Webster amused himself by sending telegrams to 20 of his acquaintances, selected at random.

Each message contained just one word: "Congratulations."

So far as Webster knew, not one of them had done anything in particular on which he might be congratulated.

But each of the 20 took the message as a matter of course & wrote him a letter of thanks.

Each had assumed he had done something worthy of a congratulatory telegram.

- Sunshine Magazine. (moreillustrations.com)

Pro 27:2 (ICB): “Don’t praise yourself.  Let someone else do it. Let the praise come from a stranger and not from your own mouth.”

“He who pats himself on the back may dislocate his shoulder.” - Ernest Legouve.