GEN616 One should not praise a person excessively, since this may be misinterpreted as empty flattery.  (This verse) does not say “righteous and wholehearted” as it does at the beginning of the Torah portion (such was not said directly to Noah); hence we may infer that only a part of a man’s good qualities should be enumerated in his presence, but that in his absence the whole of his good qualities may be told.   Rashi, Eruvin 18b.  WAGS 206