Pride, its daughters, and humility

Pride is the inordinate love of our own pre-eminence. There is a tendency deeply seated in human nature, which arises from the self-love which is innate in every man, and which leads him to prefer himself to others, to wish to lord it over them, and to bear with impatience the yoke of subjection to authority. Truth requires that we should look upon any qualities and gifts that we possess as coming to us from the bounty and goodness of God, and as giving us no right to exalt ourselves above others who have received similar or even greater benefits from the generosity of our common Father. Pride, on the contrary, would willingly close its eyes to this salutary and humbling truth; it looks upon whatever it possesses as its own, as the fruit of its own labour and merit; it is prone to magnify its gifts, and to consider them to be greater than they really are, while on the other hand it is blind to the good qualities of others. This leads to the growth of a spirit of independence which is impatient of subjection to any authority, human or divine, and to a depreciation and contempt of others. The proud man has no need to ask God for anything; he thanks him that he is not as the rest of men; he is self-sufficient and independent of all the world. This is the pinnacle of pride, the inordinate love of one’s own pre-eminence.

Consummate pride, which refuses to be subject to God and to lawful authority, and which looks down upon other men with profound contempt, is a mortal sin. If it does not go to these lengths, but merely magnifies self without grave insubordination and contempt of others, it is a venial sin.

Pride is so serious an evil because it strikes at the root of the primary obligations of reverent obedience towards our Lord God and love of our neighbour, because it is opposed to the truth, and because of its universality; it is in the heart of every man and quickly grows to fearful dimensions unless corrected and subdued.

To pride is opposed humility, the virtue which occupies the mean between the two extremes of pride and pusillanimity or mean-spiritedness. The mean-spirited man refuses to take the place for which his talents fit him, and which God intends for him. He puts himself beneath his equals and inferiors to the detriment of his dignity and office; he is afraid to exercise the authority entrusted to him, and the public good suffers in consequence. Humility, on the other hand, keeps a man in his place both with respect to God and his fellow-men. It is grounded on the knowledge of God and of self; the humble man knows and acknowledges that he has nothing but what he has received from God, that he is utterly and entirely dependent on God every moment of his life, that if left to himself he will fall into the lowest depths of sin and degradation; and this knowledge causes him to think much of God and little, very little, of self. This is the virtue so much recommended by our divine Lord: “‘ Learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart.’’¹

Pride leads to many other vices, among which are: presumption, ambition, vainglory, boasting, and hypocrisy.

(a) Presumption is the inclination and wish to undertake what is above one’s capacity. Ordinarily it is a venial sin, but it will be mortal if it is the occasion of serious harm to the cause of God or our neighbour.

(b) Ambition is the inordinate striving after dignities and honours. The inordinateness consists in striving after honours to which one has no just claim or greater than one’s due, or by unlawful modes and means, or with too great eagerness. Apart from such inordinateness it is not sinful to seek after honours and dignities, as these belong to the class of things that are in themselves indifferent; it is a meritorious act to seek with moderation after dignities and honours in order thereby to be able to do more for God and one’s fellow-men. “If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.”² Such an act belongs to the virtue of magnanimity. Ambition is commonly a venial sin, but it becomes mortal when it is the cause of serious harm, or when the means employed to attain its end are grievously sinful.

(c) Vainglory is the inordinate striving after the esteem and praise of men. It is not wrong but praiseworthy to seek after and preserve a good reputation, which, as Holy Scripture teaches, is better than great riches.³ But inordinateness, vanity, and sin come in when the esteem and praise of those men is sought whose esteem is not worth having, or when esteem is sought for what does not deserve esteem, or not so great as is sought after, or when glory is not referred to the proper end. It is usually a venial sin, but may become mortal in the same way as ambition.

(d) Boasting is the inordinate bragging about one’s own good qualities or gifts, or even about what is sinful. If the inordinate display is in action rather than in word it is called ostentation.

(e) Hypocrisy is the feigning of virtues and qualities that one does not possess.

¹ Matt. xi 29.

² 1 Tim. iii 1.

³ Prov. xxii 1.

Pride.—Pride is an inordinate desire of one’s own personal excellence.

(a) It is a desire, for the object of pride is that which is pleasing and yet not easy of attainment.

(b) The desire is concerned with excellence, that is, with a high degree of some perfection (such as virtue, knowledge, beauty, fame, honor) or with superiority to others in perfection.

(c) The excellence sought is personal; that is, the object of pride is self as exalted on high or raised above others. Ambition seeks greatness in honors and dignities, presumption greatness in accomplishment, and vanity greatness in reputation and glory; pride, from which these other vices spring, seeks the greatness of the ego or of those things with which the ego is identified, such as one’s own children, one’s own family, or one’s own race.

(d) The desire is inordinate, either as to the matter, when one desires an excellence or superiority of which one is unworthy (e.g., equality with Our Lord), or as to the manner, when one expressly desires to have excellence or superiority without due subjection (e.g., to possess one’s virtue without dependence on God or from one’s own unaided merits). In the former case pride is opposed to greatness of soul, in the latter case to humility. The contempt which is proper to pride is a disdain for subjection, and the contempt which belongs to disobedience is a disgust for a precept; but pride naturally leads to contempt for law and for God and the neighbor (see 2367).

The Acts of Pride.—(a) In his intellect, the proud man has an exaggerated opinion of his own worth, and this causes his inordinate desire of praise and exaltation. But pride may also be the cause of conceited ideas, for those who are too much in admiration of themselves often come to think that they are really as great as they wish to be.

(b) The will of the proud man worships his own greatness, and longs for its recognition and glorification by others.

(c) In his external words and works, the proud man betrays himself by boasting, self-glorification, self-justification, by his haughty appearance and gestures and luxurious style, by arrogance, insolence, perfidy, disregard of the rights and feelings of others, etc.

The Sinfulness of Pride.—(a) Complete pride, which turns away from God because it considers subjection detrimental to one’s own excellence, is a mortal sin from its nature, since it is a manifest rebellion against the Supreme Being (Ecclus., x. 14). Such was the pride of Lucifer, but it is rare in human beings. Complete pride may be venial from the imperfection of the act, when it is only a semideliberate wish.

(b) Incomplete pride, which turns inordinately to the love of created excellence but without disaffection to superiors, is in itself a venial sin, for there is no serious disorder in the excess of an otherwise indifferent passion. But circumstances may make this pride mortal (e.g., when it is productive of serious harm to others).

Pride Compared with Other Sins.—(a) Gravity.—Complete pride is less than hatred of God, for the former has as its object personal excellence, the latter separation from God. But after hatred of God complete pride is worse disloyalty than any other mortal sin; it separates from God directly, since it abjures allegiance to the Supreme Being, while other sins separate from God only indirectly, since they offend, not from contempt, but from ignorance, or passion or excessive desire.

(b) Origin.—Pride was the first sin, because by it the angels and our first parents fell, the angels desiring likeness to God in beatitude, Adam and Eve likeness in knowledge (Ecclus., x. 15; Prov., xviii. 11; Tob., iv. 14).

(c) Influence.—Pride is called the queen and mother of the seven capital vices—namely, vainglory (2450), gluttony (2473), lust (2494), avarice (2426), sloth (1322), envy (1342), and anger (2549)—not in the sense that every sin is the result of pride (for many persons sin from ignorance, passion, etc.), but in the sense that the inordinate desire of personal excellence is a motive that can impel one to any kind of sin, just as covetousness offers a means that is useful for every temporal end (I Tim., vi. 10). Pride is also most dangerous, since it steals away the reward of virtue itself (Matt., vi. 2); and, as humility is the first step towards heaven, pride is the first step towards hell.

S. Th. II-II, q. 162; I-II, q. 84, a. 2 and 4.

1048. Pride (orgueil; hoovaardigheid) is the inordinate appetite of one's own excellence. It is called:

1. Appetite, because pride resides in the appetite, namely principally in the will, if it seeks excellence in spiritual things, secondarily in the irascible power, which tends to sensible, arduous, and excellent good;

2. Inordinate: to seek excellence according to itself is not evil, but it is against the order of reason that someone tend above that which he is, as the proud man does: "for right reason has this, that the will of each one be borne toward that which is proportioned to him" (a. 1);

3. Of excellence: both relative, by which someone wills to excel others, at least implicitly by contemning them; and absolute, by which someone simply wills to excel above that which he is, even not thinking of others;

4. Of one's own: the special object or proper appetible thing from which pride receives its species is the loftiness of one's own person; for not in this or that matter, but commonly and in all things, the proud man has himself as lofty. Therefore pride seeks a certain universal excellence and by this is distinguished from presumption, ambition, and vainglory, which inordinately seek some particular excellence, whether in honors and dignities.

1049. Pride is a mortal sin. - For pride is contrary to subjection to God and to charity; for the proud man exalts himself above that which has been fixed for him by God, whether contempt of God is included in pride, or the man does not wish to be subjected to his rule.

But pride happens in four ways: 1. by judging that the goods which one has are not had from God, or at least by acting as if he had them from himself; 2. by judging that he has received those things from God but on account of his own merits, or by acting as if it were so; 3. by attributing to himself goods which he does not have; 4. in the goods which he has, by willing, with others contemned, to be preferred to them more than is fitting. The first two modes, since they include formal contempt of God, are mortal sin; the last two often are only venial, because to magnify oneself in affection and to raise oneself more than is just, while one does not refuse to be subjected to God, is not a grave disorder, unless it is done with grave irreverence toward God, or renders one ready to sin mortally, or there is present grave contempt of neighbor or notable detriment.

1050. Gravity of pride. - Pride 1. under a certain respect is the gravest of sins, namely on the part of aversion. For the aversion which in other sins follows conversion to created good pertains per se to pride, which per se refuses to be subjected to God; but not to wish to be subjected to him and to his rule is to be directly turned away from him; hence on the part of aversion it is the gravest of sins: for that which is per se is stronger than that which is through another. Therefore pride exceeds other sins in aversion, which formally completes sin. But on the part of conversion it is not the greatest, because one's own excellence is not an object which has the greatest repugnance to the good of virtue. Finally, simply speaking, it is not the gravest, for sins against the theological virtues have for their object the very aversion from God; but pride has only one's own excellence, by reason of which, since it does not wish to be subject to God, it turns away from him (a. 6).

Hence 2. it is the beginning of every sin: a) indirectly and as it were per accidens, by removing an obstacle, insofar as namely man through pride contemns the divine law, by which he is prohibited from sinning (according to Jer. 2:20): thus it is the cause of sin or the beginning on the part of aversion. For aversion or contempt of God, by which someone does not wish to be subjected to his rule and which per se pertains to pride, is found in all sins implicitly as consequent upon conversion to a good opposed to the law; but from this aversion sin has that it is evil, and therefore there the account of evil begins, and thus it is the beginning of sin; b) per se, insofar as other sins are ordered to the end of pride, which is one's own excellence, to which everything which someone inordinately seeks can be ordered: thus it is the cause of every sin or the beginning on the part of conversion, insofar as all sins can arise from it as from a final cause, insofar as temporal goods which man seeks in other sins can be willed on account of one's own excellence, which is the end of pride.

Hence 3. because it is the final cause of all sins, it is not in the strict sense a capital sin, but rather the cause of all the capitals, and the mother and queen of all vices. Nevertheless there are certain sins which immediately and more frequently arise from it, and immediately serve it, because they seek a certain special excellence and have an object very near to the object of pride; hence they are customarily called its daughters. They are presumption, ambition, and vainglory, concerning which it was said in n. 918.

1051. Remarks. - 1. Pride differs from disobedience: the latter is from disdain for the precept as such, the former from disdain for subjection to God.

2. On the origin and progress of pride, cf. Lehmkuhl, Th. M. I, n. 884.

3. Bernard distinguishes twelve grades of pride which are opposed to the twelve grades of humility. Cf. S. Th., a. 4, ad 4.

FIRST therefore I assert that Pride, opposed to Humility, is a special vice.

It is proved by D. Thomas, art. 1. and D. Bonavent. in speculo animae, cap. 1. and part one of the Centil. sect. 17. and book 3. of the Compend. Theol. verit. cap. 15. For it is against reason, which dictates that the will of each be borne toward that which is proportioned to him: but Pride wills to overstep; or wills to seem above, whence it is called Superbia.

I ASSERT secondly that there are four species of pride, from D. Gregory 23. Moral. cap. 7. So D. Thom. art. 4. D. Bonavent. LL. CC. of the Centil. and of the Compendium Theol. verit.

THE FIRST is to esteem that one has a good from oneself. The second, to esteem the gifts of God as received from one's own merits. The third is, to boast of having what one does not have. The fourth is, despising the others, to wish to be seen uniquely to have what one has.

THE REASON is, because the immoderate appetite of excellence and preeminence above others is wont to vary according to the aforesaid modes: And indeed according to the various degrees of humility so many degrees of Pride could be numbered, because contraries are multiplied in just as many modes, as the S. Doctor declares in the places cited, and D. Thomas ad 4. who also ad primum notes that it is without the vice of unbelief that the proud man glories, as if he had goods from himself and from his merits.

I ASSERT thirdly: Pride from its genus is mortal sin, and among the vices opposed to the moral virtues the gravest. So S. Thom. quaest. 162. art. 5. D. Bonavent. in Pharetra, lib. I. cap. 6. and LL. cc.

IT IS PROVED by the S. Doctor in the place cited, with the argument of D. Augustine de Virginitate, cap. 31. and 19. de Civit. cap. 12. which D. Thomas uses, because just as humility regards the subjection of man to God: so on the contrary Pride properly regards the defect of this subjection, so much so that it pertains properly to Pride to refuse to be subject to God, and to exalt oneself above that which is fixed for the man himself according to the divine rule or measure, against what the Apostle says, I. Corinth. 10. But we will not glory beyond measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath measured to us. Therefore Eccles. 10. it is said: The beginning of the pride of man is to fall away from God.

From this excellence, however, by which he refuses to be subject to God, it arises that it exceeds the other sins opposed to the moral virtues, which turn away from God either through ignorance, or through cupidity and frailty. For Pride prevails in malice above them. The same argument he has in speculo animae, cap. 3.

I ASSERT fourthly, that Pride is a capital vice.

IT IS PROVED by D. Bonavent. in Diaeta, tit. I. cap. 3. for from it arise Presumption, Ambition, Disobedience, Boasting, Shame at good, the Mockery of the good, or of the simple, Vainglory, and Hypocrisy.

OR, as the S. Doctor says in speculo animae, cap. 1. there arise Presumption, Contempt, and Vain glory.

PRESUMPTION consists chiefly in this, that man presumes that he has grace and other goods, either from himself, or from his merits, or falsely, or more than others; which are the four modes, or species of Pride, related above from D. Gregory.

HENCE arises the tempting of God, by which one wills to ask without necessity, and to make trial of the Divine power. Hence arises the presumption of peril [discrimen], when someone exposes himself to danger, trusting in the divine power alone, despising human aid, or spurning the fitting means without necessity of faith, or of the Church; and this has the character of mortal sin; whence it is said Deuter. 6. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Where he brings in the Gloss saying: He tempts God, who having what he might do, without reason commits himself to danger. Thus S. Bonaventura.

THESE things must be explained somewhat. Temptation and the presumption of peril, related above, are opposed to that religious subjection by which we are bound to God. For we pretend to take trial of some perfection of God, doubting of it at least indirectly, by asking such things as seem ordered to nothing else, as when I despise the means ordered by God, wishing to obtain the effect from the power of God, as that God provide food from heaven for a whole multitude, and other similar things.

ANOTHER mode of the presumption of peril is, when I expose myself to danger, pretending that God deliver me by a miracle, as if falling from a high tower I wished to be sustained by God; for Christ also Matth. 4. answered the Devil persuading this: It is written: Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

FORMAL temptation indeed, which includes doubt about some perfection of God, is mortal: for it includes a great injury inflicted on God, and grave contempt; whence it does not become venial from the smallness of the matter, but only from the surreption of the act, as Sanchez notes, in Decal. Tom. I. lib. II. cap. 4. num. 5. Valentia II. II. disput. 6. quaest. 14. puncto 2.

BUT if the temptation of God is without express doubt, Toletus, lib. 4. sum. cap. 19. says it can be venial, when it arises from mere curiosity of seeing a supernatural work: And Valentia above, Sayrus lib. 4. cap. 7. num. 14. say it is commonly venial, unless the matter be too grave, as when one tempting God exposes himself to the greatest danger. But Sanchez says it is mortal, unless simplicity and ignorance, not altogether coarse, excuse.

So also Suarez Tom. 1. de Relig. tract. 3. lib. 1. cap. 2. num. 16. The reason is, because he wills the Divine omnipotence to serve his curiosity by supernal works. Nevertheless Sanchez adds, and almost Suarez with Lessio, lib. 2. de Iustitia, cap. 45. dub. 1. that the danger and the work must be so slight that the fault be venial, as in a light illness refusing to use medicines. I judge also that the tempting of the Divine will by some sign asked is a tempting of God, as the S. Doctor teaches here, and D. Thomas, quaest. 97. art. 1. Suarez Tomo 1. de Relig. tract. 3. lib. 1. cap. 2. Sanchez, num. 8. Nor is it required that it always arise from doubt about some perfection of God.

TO the temptation of God pertains the willing of a sign from God for the truth of faith, for instance, that Christ appear in the Most Holy Sacrament.

TO the presumption of peril pertains the purgation by glowing iron, which is forbidden by Canon law, cap. Mennam, and can. Monomachiam, and cap. Consulnisti 2. quaest. 5. and cap. Ex tuarum on canonical purgation. See D. Thomam 2. 2. quaest. 95. art. 8. ad 3. and p. p. quaest. 80. art. 6. ad 3. Valentiam 2. 2. disput. 6. quaest. 14. puncto 1. corolar. 4. Sayrum, lib. 4. cap. 7. Sanchez, num. 71.

TO the temptation of God also belongs, in grave illness to refuse medicines, and to will to obtain health from God suddenly, and it is mortal. So Navar. Summa, cap. 11. Sanchez, num. 14. Suarez in the place cited, cap. 2.

IT is also a temptation of God rashly to expose oneself to martyrdom without cause. So Navar. cap. 11. Sanchez num. 15. and others. But already in the Treatise on Hope, and on Religion, these things have been treated.

FROM Presumption also arise excessive confidence in oneself, inept audacity, etc. And the like.

CONTEMPT is the proper effect of pride, refusing to be subject to God and superiors; from which result Disobedience, Despising, Irreverence, Killing, Mockery, Irony, etc. See the S. Doctor.

VAIN glory is that by which someone vainly strives to show forth his own excellence, and it is mortal, when it covets the glory due to God. From this arise Ambition for honor, the appetites of human favor, fear of confusion, and love of praise.

From ambition for honor arises Pomp, from which three fruits blossom: Ostentation in a superfluous retinue and apparatus, and an ostentatious bearing and speech, which are often venial, and sometimes deadly.

From the appetite for human favor arises Flattery, which is mortal, if one praise an evil grievously [laudes malum grave], giving occasion that they remain in sin, glory, and are puffed up beyond their merits. But if you praise with the sole intention of pleasing, it will be venial sin according to D. Augustinum, serm. 41. de Sanctis. From that appetite for favor also arises prodigality, which is mortal, when those goods which ought to be expended on the poor are dissipated uselessly, or distributed to dishonest persons. And in this he reprehends Ecclesiastics, whose goods beyond the sustentation of their person and state ought to be bestowed on the poor.

From fear of confusion arises evil bashfulness, and false humility. Evil bashfulness begets shame at divine things, shame at poverty, shame in Confession. There arises also the denial of truth, false impugning, excuse, and the defense of sin.

From the appetite for human praise arise Hypocrisy, Ostentation, Singularity, and Boasting.

HYPOCRISIS according to Isidore, de summo bono, cap. 14. sentent. 2. is the simulation of a good not existing; but it is a lie. Therefore just as a lie is not mortal, unless it be pernicious to one's neighbor, or against the truth of Faith and morals: so Hypocrisy is mortal, when it is with the intention of deceiving under the appearance of goodness: as he who feigns sanctity, that he may obtain ecclesiastical goods of which he is unworthy.

OSTENTATION is, when one strives to show outwardly the good which he has, or simulates that he has, that he may thence catch praises, nor is it mortal from its genus.

SINGULARITY is, when one wishes to appear singular, and it has various evil fruits, according as it is found in various matters. From this also arises Envy.

BOASTING is that by which one glories in words about a good, either which he has, or which he does not have. See the S. Doctor declaring at length that almost all sins are begotten from Pride.

HENCE also D. Thomas, quaest. 162. art. 2. from D. Augustino, lib. de natura, et gratia, cap. 29. says, that Pride is indeed a special sin, but that it can nevertheless be called general by causality, inasmuch as other sins arise from it. First per se, inasmuch as others are ordered to the end of Pride, which is one's own excellence, to which whatever is inordinately desired can be ordered. Secondly indirectly, and per accidens, namely by removing a hindrance, inasmuch as man in Pride contemns the Divine Law, by which he is prohibited from sinning, according to that Hieremiae 2. Thou hast broken my yoke in pieces, and thou hast said: I will not serve: Yet many things are done against the law of God not from contempt, but from ignorance, or frailty. Whence D. August. says in the place cited, Many things are done wrongly which are not done proudly.

EX HIS you have that Pride is a vice, not only capital, but the head, and beginning of almost every sin: Whence S. Gregorius 31. Moral. cap. 31. names it not a capital vice, but the Queen of vices.

IT is however difficult to avoid, as S. Doctor, LL. CC. especially, lib. 3. Compendii Theol. cap. 15. and D. Thom. art. 16. ad 1. warns; for pride insinuates itself even into goods. This he pursues at length and most beautifully in S. Doctor, in Diaeta, tit. 1. cap. 3. which I beseech you to read, treating the various and apt similitudes of Pride.

I ASSERT lastly, that this is the beginning of every sin. Eccl. 11. Pride is the beginning of all sin.

THE REASON is, because the aversion from God, which formally completes the nature of sin, pertains to Pride per se; but to the other sins consequently. It is called therefore the beginning of all sin, both because the first sin of Lucifer and of Man issued from Pride; and because every sin is aptly born to be begotten from Pride, even if not all necessarily arise from it, as Tannerus, disp. cit. says.

To these the S. Doctor adds, Compend. Theol. lib. 3. cap. 15. that every sin, since it is an aversion from God, is a certain contempt of God. That therefore which D. Prosper lib. de vita Contempl. cap. 2. says: No sin can, or could be, or will be able to be without Pride, is understood materially, inasmuch as in every sin there is a certain appetite for something above that which befits man subject to the divine laws, namely for the very transgression itself, under the notion of a certain excellence and loftiness; which is the proper object of Pride, which is a special vice, as Valentia notes disput. 9. quaest. 3. puncto 1. with Bonaventura, in the place cited.

HE notes truly, with the S. Doctor, at the beginning of cap. 1. that all Pride can be venial on account of the imperfection of an act not fully deliberate, as happens also with other vices.

1. What is pride and in what precisely does its malice consist ?

Pride is the inordinate love of one's own excellence. To acknowledge and to love in due measure the good qualities of soul or body or the gifts of fortune which one possesses is not pride; if such blessings are referred to their proper source, they become the grounds of a proper and becoming self-respect. Truth requires that we should esteem ourselves at our real value, and that we should attribute any good that we have to its true source, our Creator and Lord. If we leave God out of account and claim practical independence of Him, and magnify ourselves for the gifts which we possess or which we think that we possess, we become proud. Similarly inordinateness and pride make their appearance when we attribute the good that we have to our own merits, or when we affect to have more than in reality we have, or when we conduct ourselves as if we were the only persons who had such good things, and consequently look down with contempt on others. The malice of pride consists in so extolling oneself as to claim practical independence of Almighty God. The proud man does not like to acknowledge his indebtedness to God for all that he has; he does not like to submit to the ordinances of God or to those of legitimate superiors; he strives to shake off as far as possible the yoke of subjection which is the necessary condition of man inasmuch as he is a creature.

2. What is ambition and what sort of sin is it?

Ambition is an inordinate desire of dignities and honors. A moderate desire of dignities and honors for a good object is not vicious, but if the desire becomes immoderate, or the end in view is not good, or unlawful means are employed to attain honors, vicious ambition makes its appearance. It is a venial sin in itself, but it may be mortal on account of the means employed, or the end, or on account of injury done to one’s neighbor.

3. What is vainglory and how is it distinguished from the care of a good reputation ?

Glory is knowledge by others accompanied by their praise.

It is natural and praiseworthy to seek by good deeds to deserve the esteem and praise of the good. "This is what is meant by a good reputation, and we are obliged to strive to acquire it and to preserve it when acquired, as the necessary condition for doing good in the world. The desire of being praised by others becomes the sin of vainglory when praise is sought for what does not deserve praise, or without due moderation, or for an improper object, or from those whose opinion is of no value.