What some people offer as a compliment, others take as an insult. Generally speaking, when we compliment someone, we expect that person to be happy that they have been complimented. But sometimes those people get annoyed, even angered. That’s because in their worldview, that compliment is seen as an insult. That compliment ascribes to them a quality that they consider not as a strength, but as a weakness – For example, if we tell someone who prides on being tough, that they are sensitive, then they will take it as an insult. Or at least as a put down. And that’s why before we compliment others, it’s our responsibility to understand what they value.

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17.15 Austerity of speech consists in speaking words that are truthful, pleasing, beneficial, and not agitating to others, and also in regularly reciting Vedic literature.