Talk:Pierre Beaumarchais

There cannot be sincere flattery,

I think that the translation "there cannot be sincere flattery" is not faithful. "Flatteur" is a positive adjective in French, "éloge" is a positive noun, whereas "flattery" seems (according to the wiktionary) a negative noun in English. --Pierre de Lyon (talk) 20:49, 5 June 2012 (UTC)

I agree that the translation is quite loose. Removing praise ("éloge"), and adding "sincere", in an apparent attempt to mitigate the negative connotation of "flattery", just makes a muddle of it. Unfortunately, whoever provided the translation did not cite their source.

I am not really competent to translate French, but I would interpret it as "it is not flattering to praise" (using the gerund as an adjective with positive connotation), or more succinctly as "praise is not flattering" (using a definite noun rather than an infinitive, but sacrificing cadence). ~ Ningauble (talk) 16:13, 6 June 2012 (UTC)

Unsourced

• En fait d'amour, trop n'est même pas assez.
  • Where love is concerned, too much is not even enough.