1. I’ve always been told that I am cynical and negative.

But one time, a girl I was dating said otherwise.

I told her this, and she shrugged. Without realizing how much it meant to me, she said:

“I never thought that about you. I just thought, you know. You know people can do better, so you expect them to not be shitty. And you let them know when they suck. I never saw you as negative at all.”

This is essentially the only time in my life someone verbalized how I feel and it’s stuck with me ever since.

2. Was at Starbucks and the attractive barista asked for my name to put on the cup. I told her, but when I got my cup it said “handsome guy.” Made my week.

3. I’m a little self-conscious of my laugh because it literally sounds like a dying hyena, and I’ve had a couple girls tell me “OMG I love your laugh” and “you have the best laugh,” that always puts a smile on my face thinking about that.

4. Once, a blind girl that I helped to arrive at her place, she told me that she could feel my very good vibes and she was comfortable walking with me because that. I won’t forget that.

5. Was working in a restaurant and told a guest that I would have the bartender make them a really annoying off-menu cocktail. Put in the order, walked to the bar to beg her to make this cocktail that I know she hates dealing with. She looks at me and sighs and says “That grin should be illegal.” and proceeds to make the cocktail. Still makes me smile to myself.

6. When I got my MA, a professor of mine came over to congratulate me after the ceremony. She said “You didn’t speak much in my classes, but when you did I always listened because I knew what you said would matter.” It was a really simple statement at the time, but I think about it often.

7. I made a girl laughs and she said I was delightful. It was a word, at the time, that I hadn’t heard in conversation in that context. Different but nice.

8. “You make my heart feel full.”

9. I’ve been complimented a few times on my body odor. I wasn’t using any perfumes or colognes, just some Degree pit stick. And it’s not just after a shower or the earlier parts of the day, no – this was later in the day when you expect your deodorant to kinda stop working. Once it was while I was putting something together in a garage during a hot summer evening (and not by my significant other).

10. A girl who was my friend, but also extremely attractive told me her friends told her that I got really attractive in college. Then she went on to say “And I was like, yeah. He really has!”

I was a little pudgy in High School. I also hadn’t learned to style my hair. In college I started working out and cut it short.

11. Came from one of my very best friends, we go waay back. She sent me an audio on WhatsApp talking about something funny. I don’t remember what it was, but I know it was funny enough that I started recording a reply, but couldn’t stop laughing, so I ended up sending her a sixty second laugh clip. She replied “I’ll listen to this every morning. Your laugh makes me happy. I miss you.”

12. “Your eyes are beautiful.”

I don’t know why I remember that one so much. I guess it was just a unique comment.

13. I’ve had vitiligo since I was about 9 or 10 and I’ve always been very self-conscious about it. One of the patches of unpigmented skin is on my right eyelid, and it causes a few of my eyelashes to be white.

Well this random girl at a bar noticed my white eyelashes and told me they were awesome. She then called over like 4 or 5 of her friends to check out my eyelashes and they all thought they were awesome.

So I got that going for me, which is nice.

14. “You have a really cute butt” -The girl I am currently dating for the past 6 years.

15. I was talking to my ex and a few of his friends about this girl I knew in high school, Cecily. I said “she’s the kind of person that makes you feel like you’re the only person in the world when you’re talking to her. She engages so deeply and always seems really interested in what you’re saying to her.”

One of his friends said, “I think you’re one of those people” and everyone else in the car voiced their agreement. It was the coolest thing that ever happened to me. I’ll never forget that.

16. I been walking the same route for over a year for exercise trying to lose weight. i had lost about 120 pounds by this time when i heard a woman’s voice I did not know call out to me from her back yard. “I’m proud of you, you have lost a lot of weight” I haven’t seen her since but to me that helped me stay motivated hearing that.

17. I was shopping for clothes with my wife and kid about a year ago, and I went to pay while they’d wait outside. As I approached the cashier, she put down whatever she was doing and turned to greet me, and that’s when she made a genuinely confused/embarrassed face. She noticed that she confused me with that reaction and apologized completely saying that she was a bit blown away when she saw my face – she wasn’t expecting to see someone so good-looking and it startled her I guess.

It was a nice ego boost at the time since she was quite attractive actually, and I was probably at my fattest, but I guess I had a good beard and hair day.

18. One time I was taking the train home from work like I always do and some random guy standing next to me said “I really like your shirt” right before he got off at his stop. It was just a normal striped button down that I had worn a million times. Made my day! I still think about it sometimes when I’m on the train.

19. My friend crashed her car once and called me immediately after it happened. She was still in the car and the other driver had cheesed it. It could have been pretty bad, too…the footwell caved in on her legs and a few inches more would’ve crushed them.

When I asked her why she called me instead of 911, she said, “I don’t know… you’re all I thought about.”

20. “You’re really funny. You should talk to people more.” I have social anxiety and that was the nicest thing anyone ever said to me imo.

21. “It’s really admirable how you don’t seem to care what others think of you.”

10 years ago. Still not sure if that was genuine or a sly insult. 10/10 execution on that one.

22. Two good ones.

A female friend once told me: “You’re such a good guy. You’re gonna be the type of dad that braids his daughter’s hair.”

Anddddd a hot girl I kinda know once told me: “Those jeans really make your butt look nice”. Guess this means the squats are working.

23. Had a friend of a friend tell me they really liked my voice after I spent some time explaining board games rules to them. Said it sounded very clear and pleasant. Feels awesome.

24. Someone told me that I was the most hilarious person that he know.

25. I was talking with a few friends that were girls, and we were talking about a girl that I’d had a crush on over the summer. One of my friends said, “Oh, her? Yeah you were totally out of her league.”

26. I once had a lady tell me that when she looked at me she saw music. Had another girl once tell me that I essentially personified Texas to her. Both really awesome compliments for me that I will hold on to forever.

27. A girl once told me that, for all the geeky shit I’m into, I’m not as awkward as you’d expect and that she could tell I took good care of my looks.

I do take care of how i look but nobody pointed it out to me until that day, and even then the only other person to acknowledge it after that was my now ex-girlfriend.

28. This isn’t precisely a compliment but it still makes me smile. It happened before I came out as trans. I was at a convention dressed casually because it was the last day and we were gonna leave soon. I had to run through the con to get my roomies’ part of the payment for the hotel room, and as I passed a checkpoint the volunteer stopped me with an “Excuse me, sir.” She wanted to see my wristband. I was elated! I practically floated the rest of the way.

29. Late night I was walking into a kiosk at the central station with my girlfriend when a scuffed up homeless man approached us. He just told her out of the blue: “Hold on to him, you will never get something that good again in your lifetime.”

30. Delivered a pizza to 2 drunk chicks, as i was walking away they yelled that i should turn the AC on in my car. I turned around just as one yelled “CAUSE YOU’RE LOOKIN PRETTY HOT” as she slammed the door. That was a good day.

31. “You’re cute.”

I may suck at everything but I’ve got this to keep me going through the tough times

32. “You take criticism well.”

33. A girl about 3 lockers down from me walked past after grabbing her books, the looked back and said “wow you smell good!” That made my whole day and I still remember it.

34. “You have the perfect penis” is the absolute best compliment I’ve ever received. It’s just incredibly satisfying in the most carnal way that no matter how much I fuck up in life, at least that area is covered.

35. “Have you been working out? I can tell.”

36. I was canvassing, on a campaign 4 years ago and a woman dropped her keys in a large trash can shortly before I passed by and she was very worried because she had somewhere to be. I asked what was wrong and she told me and I got them out for her.

She was very grateful and she said to me, “There is another jewel on your throne in heaven.” It was a strange thing to hear but it was very flattering. to me, it was a small act, reaching into that trash can, but it made a huge difference in her day. It’s not a standard compliment, you know about looks or smarts or whatever, and I’m not religious at all, but it was profound and it felt genuine so it has stuck with me ever since.

I’ve been called funny before, and people sometimes call me handsome (which is also flattering and i love to hear it, especially from my SO) but i’ve never been complimented on my character from a stranger. I think compliments of my character are the most memorable, cause its the one thing I really work on.

37. I had made a joke where I implied that no one thought I was cool until I got tattooed. My ex dropped the most sincere, “I have always thought you were cool.”

Sounds a little lame, but the way she said it lit me up.

38. When I worked retail I had a woman call into the store after she left asking for me. I wasn’t able to answer since I was helping other people at the time and asked to just take a message. I assumed they were angry or something so I went and asked what they needed. They said oh she just wanted to tell you how beautiful you are. And rambled on for a few minutes about that, haha! She didn’t know my name and basically described who I was with descriptions ending with beautiful, tall, and so on. So that was really nice!

39. My dentist recently asked if I lost weight. I don’t pay attention to weight (don’t own a scale) so I just said I didn’t know if I had or not. She replied, “Oh well you’re looking good.”

It’s the first genuine compliment that I’ve gotten in years.

40. I’ve never considered myself very attractive. One day I went in to the restaurant/bar I work at before heading off to a music festival to grab some food (shoutout to 50% discounts) and I tend to go all out when it comes to dressing up for festivals. I work with a lot of very attractive women who I consider way out of my league. As soon as they see me they’re just firing off the compliments about how good I look or how “cute” I look. One of them even said “Damn! You look hot!” and I have never been on a bigger high then that moment.

41. I lost my virginity to this girl, and she looked at me after it was all said and done and goes, “You’re beautiful.” Not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, but I’m never gonna forget that one.

42. I had moved out of state and been gone for several years. I returned to visit my old friends and they told me that I had been the leader of the group and they all kind of felt a bit lost when I moved. It hurt a lot to hear, but it was also something I really took to heart. They all cared about me and looked up to me even though we were the same age/grade.

43. Some years back, when kiddo was an infant, I was grocery shopping with kiddo in the cart. I noticed a cute woman in the veggie section as I was getting stuff.

A couple minutes later I helped an older woman who was in a motorized wheelchair. I was in no rush that day, so I went with her and got stuff from shelves. There were folks who had helped my grandmother with stuff like that, so I was trying to pay it forward. Also kiddo was really charmed by her, so they flirted and it was really cute.

I get her to the front, then go back to my shopping. A minute after that, I’m grabbing a couple frozen things and the cute woman comes up. She says something along the lines of “I see your ring, and I swear I’m not trying to hit on you, but you’re very cute, and then I saw you being nice to that lady, and playing with your baby, and now you’re super cute, and your wife is really lucky!” There were some ums and stammers in there, and she blushed as I thanked her, and then raced off.

But damn, y’all. That was some top-notch complimenting, and I damn near strutted out of that store.

44. I dated this girl for a few months about a year and a half ago. Everything was going well but then she just ghosted me and I didn’t hear from her for 8 months. I didn’t think much of it but then she got into contact with me and explained that she had went back to her home country because there was an emergency with her family. We reconciled but I had just started dating another girl and told her I didn’t want to get back together with her because of that. Anyway, about a week later, I heard from a mutual friend that had been out with her that if she said “If I had known I would have never let him go. No other guy has treated me anywhere near as good as he did.”

So yeah, that’s a pretty memorable compliment.

45. When I worked at Chipotle back when they had long lines, a lady in her 40s got her food, ate, then got back in line. She got to the front, I wait to take her order and she just says “I wanted to tell you that you are going to make a great father one day.” I was a little confused but said thanks and then she left. Still a bit confused where that came from, but a compliments a compliment. Still feels good.

46. “I feel safe when I am with you.”

47. A man came up to me, and asked me if I would be available for a date. I said I wasn’t wasn’t in a relationship, but also wasn’t homosexual, and afterwards said I appreciated the offer. ‘Ah, that’s okay buddy, I’m sure you’ll make some girl very happy one day.’ That man was very good with rejection… I think.

48. I was grocery shopping with my wife and this adorable little old lady stopped me and said, “You are so handsome, you should be a movie star.” I looked over my shoulder to make sure she was talking to me then watched my wife eye roll her so hard, Anyway, very sweet and totally made my day.

49. I’ve been very depressed lately. I’ve never felt a low like this before. My roommate noticed because I stopped doing the dishes on my designated days, which is unlike me; I just couldn’t find the energy or motivation.

I told her and she started writing encouraging notes on our shared bathroom mirror with dry erase markers.

Yesterday she wrote “5 things that make you awesome”, and today she wrote “I am a better person because of you.”

I think she literally saved my life. I’m still struggling, but I’m so lucky to have her.

50. A girl I worked with once asked if I could give her a ride home because her ride wasn’t able to pick her up. I did, and asked her out to dinner, which she agreed to. While we were at dinner, she confessed: “I didn’t actually need a ride home. I just wanted a ride from a cute guy.”

I was riding that compliment for months.