Mine is going to sound shallow, but…
I frequently get compliments on my work quality, work ethic, my reliability and responsibility. I appreciate them but they don’t make my day anymore.
But about a year ago I was at a party chatting with an acquaintance, a gay man I’d met several times before. He said " You know, you look a lot like my best friend from college. You’re prettier though…I mean, she was really pretty but not pretty like you".
Wow…that one really made my day.
QFT.
Back in school, there were a couple times where I wrote something for class, and the teacher liked it so much that, with my permission, she shared it with the whole class. That felt good.
I’ve gotten some touching compliments on my writing and my physical strength (though not at the same time). But you asked for meaningful, and the most meaningful compliments (I think) are the ones that compliment not on your talent, but on your character and attitude. So I would say the most meaningful compliment I’ve ever received is a tie between these two:
From my father: “You are unusually proactive, alert, and hard-working.”
From my best friend: "I think you have worked harder than anyone I know to challenge yourself.”
One of my proudest posessions is a baseball hat.
27 years ago when I was 17 out of high school and lost, I joined the US Navy. Onboard a ship a fire is about the worst thing that can happen. No front lawn to run to when your “house” is going up in flames. Everybody on board had rudimentary training, but a core group has specific training in Damage Control and some of us are assigned to be the flying squad. I was on the aircraft carrier *Kitty Hawk * at the time. The 30 or so guys in the flying squad have red baseball caps opposed to the almost 5000 that have regular blue command ball caps. If you see guys in red ball caps running down the hall and bells are ringing get the hell out of the way. The cool red hats were hard to come by as budgets came and went, and a real source of pride for those that had them. As a 19 year old kid I worked my ass off and didn’t get one. No more left.
I transfered off the ship to a different command. Over a year later I was on a different ship and found our ship the next pier over from Kitty Hawk. In the time honored tradition of sailors everywhere I went over to trade and barter some of our extra stuff for theirs. I went up to see my old Warrant Officer to say hi and let him know what I was up to. In the meantime they had gotten 30 new red hats with the embroidered logo, and numbered and logged out to who got them. I complimented the Warrant, and he had the Chief Petty officer go into the safe and give me one of the two that were left. Even though I left the ship a year before he remembered me and said he’d like to have me back. A hell of a thing for a 20 year old kid to hear. The pride in knowing I excelled in what I set my mind to.
Today I restore antiques as part of my buisness. I’ve had little old ladies cry seeing what I’ve done for their Grandmothers’ stuff. Pride in craftmanship, I like to think it’s part of what I learning earning that hat.
I don’t want and never have wanted kids of my own but it makes me so mad when people take this to assume I hate children. There is nothing in the world so sweet as a child’s hug, freely given, not because Mom told him or her to, but because they are just so happy to see you.
My SO’s niece and nephew adore him to pieces, and I’m happy with that. I kind of figured I was just that girl that came along with him. But this last time when he went to his parents’ home without me (I had class) and saw them, they missed me lots, asked for me over and over again, and his nephew pitched a small fit at dinner because he couldn’t sit next to me.
D’aawwwwwwwwwwwwww.
Personal: In high school I rode the bus, and the driver happened to be one of our teachers – a very cool, respected, beloved guy. One day on the ride home a bunch of freshmen guys in the back of the bus started talking smack about a girl in their class, who I happened to have known since grade school. She was really sweet but very overweight, and that was all a group of 14-year-old boys needed. My stop was before any of theirs, and just before I got off the bus I turned and gave them a bit of a “she’s a friend of mine and a better person than any of you” lecture. I felt like a chicken for waiting until my stop to speak up, and I also was shaking a little as I got off the bus. Well the next morning, as I got on the bus, our driver/teacher said, “You are to be commended for what you did yesterday.” That has stayed with me through the years, and I became someone who doesn’t hesitate to speak up in such situations. 
Musical: Four years ago I’d just started getting into jazz, and I had a public performance at a DC club as part of a workshop “graduation”: a dozen of us got up on stage and sang 3 songs each, backed by a professional jazz trio. One of my co-workers attended, and he happened to also be a musician (though not a jazz guy). I’m always more nervous about singing ballads than swing tunes, and since this was my very first jazz performance I was a little extra nervous. But after the show, my co-worker said, “You know, I’d forgotten what a pretty song ‘Someone To Watch Over Me’ is.” It wasn’t a direct compliment of my singing, but in a way it really was; it remains one of the best things anyone has ever said about me (musically).
Definitely: I’ve been lucky enough to get to sing with some really respected, well-known cats, and a quiet/sincere “yeah!” from one of them during my improv means worlds more than any compliment from an audience member. 
Is your performance on YouTube by any chance? :dubious:
I do have several performance videos on YouTube, but I just checked and “Someone to Watch Over Me” isn’t one of them.
Year back, I was involved in a live radio theater performance, At an audition, things were kinda getting out of control, in that no one was paying attention, everyone was yakking to each other or on the phone. There was an unending din and the director couldn’t even make herself heard to get people back on task.
And there I was sitting quietly and waiting to get on with it. After awhile I finally burst out, “Can we ALL just SHUT THE FUCK UP AND GET BACK TO WORK?” The whole room went silent and the director said, “If Boyo Jim gets angry, you know things have gotten REALLY bad.”
Off the top of my head, I guess I would have to consider that people have permanently entrusted me with the keys to their homes as a serious and meaningful compliment.
To me it shows a level of trust that can only be earned.
This actually sounds like a back-handed … er, something or other, but I’ve remembered it for decades now.
I was just starting a new job and was taking over a software project from another SW engineer. I had reviewed the work and documentation myself and it was time to sit down with the previous engineer with my detailed questions.
After asking questions for a little while, the other guy looked at me and said:
“I find your questions distressingly thorough.”
As odd as that comment might sound, I took it as a great compliment.
J.
I remembered another one from my college days: a friend who was visiting had locked her keys in the car, and needed someone to pop the lock from the outside. She said she needed someone “strong and gentle”, and without a pause and completely matter-of–factly my female room-mate said “Penfeather”. It wasn’t coy or flirtatious, she just stated it as a given. That felt great.
One of the nicest compliments I ever got was from my son. After a very rocky time in his teen years, where he thought I was the cause of all his unhappiness…
He wrote me a note on the back of a paper bag that said:
Mom, I love you. I appreciate your desire for personal growth. I respect your willingness to accept your own faults. I admire your ability to cry. I like your smile. I enjoy your company. I value your ability to recognize the importance of your past. I understand that you support my endeavors. I want your tools. I see your beauty. I hear your compassion. I love you.
Makes me cry every time I read it.
Holy cow… that one made ME tear up…
It reminds me: I don’t have kids and I’m an only child, so no nieces/nephews either. In face, circumstances have been such that I’ve never had any children in my life.
About 10 years ago, I dated a guy (for 5+ years) who had twin teenaged (at the time) daughters. I wasn’t a step-parent to them, more of an aunt/older friend. They lived with their mom, but we saw a lot of them on weekends and went to their games/performances and all that “parental” stuff that I never thought I’d get to do. I had/have a lot in common with them, as far as interests, attitudes, values, worldview, sense of humor.
I was deeply touched when they gave me a Mother’s Day card one year. In it they said, “We don’t know what we’d do without you.” Wow. I still have it on my mantelpiece, and I’m still in touch with them, even though I broke up with their dad (amicably) six years ago.
I find it difficult to write this but growing up I felt like an outcast. I had few friends, partially because of low self esteem and partially because I didn’t know how to make friends (still have that issue)
Recently my 20th High School Reunion came up. I didn’t attend because I didn’t want to spend money to be around people that I didn’t like. Someone had an the idea to do a picnic in a park before the actual reunion and as it was free to attend I decided to go.
When I was there although it was a small group the majority said they were glad I was there because I was one of the most popular kids in the class.
That was an incredible compliment because I never felt popular in all those years of school. I felt like an outcast but hearing the compliment really made my summer.
When my nephew was 3, his uncle’s girlfriend (formerly Aunt Josie) left said uncle. She had been a strong presence in The Kidlet’s life, as they spent every weekend together whereas he might see our side of the family once a month; she’d stood as my niece’s godmother just a few weeks before (way to go, Josie, I mean, I totally love someone who takes her compromise to help raise a child seriously :mad:). The Kidlet spent almost a year making sure who was a Real Relative ™ and who might one day not be his Aunt any more… the grin when I told him that I was his father’s sister and there was no way in Heaven, Earth or Hell that I’d ever stop being his aunt “I may travel far away, I may lose my mind, I may die, but I’ll always be your aunt, you’re not getting rid of me” was about as big as his head, and that kid’s got a big head 
They don’t differentiate “blood” and “stick-on”, kids. We really ought’a learn from them.
Thank you.
A few: “Everything is grey for you now isn’t it?”
Said to me be a woman who was a good friend who had know me as a teenager - apparently when she knew me I as a teen I saw everything as ‘black & white’. I took it as a sign of growing up 
I used to do a lot of work with a youth outdoors group (Duke of Edinburgh Award). Over the years several of the ‘kids’ have told me that my attitudes and willingness to just listen without judging and talk to them like young adults rather than children has heped get them through rough times.
One girl who was very close to dropping out of high school graduated from Oxford this year and sent me a little thank you on Facebook! I call that a win.
This thread is making me all weepy.
Awesome!
And I love how he slipped in that “I want your tools.” 
I was working in service, doing a high end, large corporate event in a fancy location, which followed a reception that had an open bar. So the several hundred persons arrived pretty warm and cheery, and well lubricated. It was back in the first implementing days of no smoking in government buildings.
I had to ask a women not to use the china as an ashtray and inform her smoking was prohibited, while removing the cup and saucer. Unfortunately, alcohol had ill affected her, and she became pettily abusive toward me. There was little I could do but stand there and take it, while she continued to smoke and flick ashes into the saucer, and be a complete jerk. I kept a smile on my face, and only responded by pointing out I had not made the rule, but was charged with enforcing it. She aggressively snuffed out the cigarette into the dish I held. I swiftly, turned and left, returning moments later with a fresh replacement cup and saucer, dropped it into place and turned quickly away from the table. Avoiding eye contact with anyone, feeling embarrassed and a little humiliated. No big deal, truly. I had enough experience to know this shit happens when you work in service. Being a good server is partly about not letting the jerks get you down. Sometimes people are just having bad days.
I admittedly told my mates back in the makeshift kitchen, where there was a large staff furiously prepping and plating the next course. I’m already over it and clearing the salads, when I get back to the kitchen area, there she stands, coat in hand. She apologizes honestly and profusely, asks my forgiveness. Her sincerity was clear and she was visibly upset. My immediate response was to thank her and then beg her not to feel too badly, that everyone in this room (now fallen remarkably quite for a busy kitchen!), had, at sometime regretted their words, that we all knew how it felt to mispeak, that she needn’t go, that I would of course forgiver her and be most pleased if she would stay. And she left, and I realized that the whole kitchen had heard her every word. One of the chef’s first words were, ‘Well that was impressive!’ To which everyone agreed. I remarked that it was indeed impressive for a server EVER to receive an apology from such an episode. To which the chef responded, ‘That wasn’t the impressive part, it was your words!’
Caught entirely off guard, I immediately blushed, and the entire staff laughed to see my surprise.