Flattery Quotes

• Flattery is like chewing gum. Enjoy it but don't swallow it.

  Hank Ketcham

  Inspirational, Cynical, Gum

  96 Copy quote

• The art of flatterers is to take advantage of the foibles of the great, to foster their errors, and never to give advice which may annoy.

  Moliere

  Art, Errors, Giving

  25 Copy quote

• People generally despise where they flatter.

  Aristotle

  People, Despise

  8 Copy quote

• The difference between appreciation and flattery? That is simple. One is sincere and the other insincere. One comes from the heart out; the other from the teeth out. One is unselfish; the other selfish. One is universally admired; the other universally condemned.

  Dale Carnegie

  Appreciation, Selfish, Heart

  Dale Carnegie (2016). “How to win friends & influence people”, p.33, Diamond Pocket Books Pvt Ltd

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• Flattery is useful when dealing with youngsters.

  Isaac Asimov

  Youngsters

  Isaac Asimov (1951). “Foundation”

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• The mischief of flattery is, not that it persuades any man that he is what he is not, but that it suppresses the influence of honest ambition, by raising an opinion that honour may be gained without the toil of merit.

  Samuel Johnson

  Ambition, Men, Toil

  Samuel Johnson (1810). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.91

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• People flatter us because they can depend upon our credulity.

  Tacitus

  People, Depends, Credulity

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• Flattery is like a painted armor; only for show.

  Socrates

  Armor, Shows

  12 Copy quote

• Flattery is a counterfeit money which, but for vanity, would have no circulation.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Money, Vanity, Criticism

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• What valor cannot win, flattery may.

  Publilius Syrus

  Winning, May, Valor

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• Between flattery and admiration there often flows a river of contempt.

  Minna Antrim

  Rivers, Flow, Admiration

  "Naked Truth and Veiled Allusions" by Minna Antrim, (p. 1061), 1901.

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• Flatterers look like friends, as wolves like dogs.

  George Chapman

  Funny, Friendship, Dog

  George Chapman (1874). “The Works of George Chapman: Plays”, p.231

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• Flattery was formerly a vice; it has now become the fashion.

  Publilius Syrus

  Fashion, Vices

  "Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations" by Jehiel Keeler Hoyt, p. 276-77, Maxims, 1922.

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• Gossip involves saying behind a person’s back what you would never say to his or her face.  Flattery means saying to a person’s face what you would never say behind his or her back.

  R. Kent Hughes

  Mean, Gossip, Faces

  17 Copy quote

• Of all wild beasts preserve me from a tyrant; and of all tame a flatterer.

  Ben Jonson

  Tyrants, Beast, Preserves

  Ben Jonson, William Gifford (1857). “The Works of Ben Jonson”, p.242

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• Flattery labors under the odious charge of servility.

  Tacitus

  Labor, Servility

  Cornelius Tacitus (1858). “The History. Germany. Agricola. Dialogue on orators”, p.1

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• Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.

  Winston Churchill

  Leadership, Pain, Growth

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• He that loves to be flattered is worthy o' the flatterer.

  William Shakespeare

  Love, Worthy, Flattered

  'Timon Of Athens' act 1, sc. 1, l. [233]

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• When we seek appreciation from others, we get not appreciation, but flattery.

  Sri Chinmoy

  Appreciation

  4 Copy quote

• Imitation is the sincerest flattery.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Leadership, Imitation

  Mahatma Gandhi (1967). “The Mind of Mahatma Gandhi”, p.21, Rajpal & Sons

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• Everybody likes a compliment.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Life, President, Likes

  21 Copy quote

• Flattery, the dangerous nurse of vice.

  Samuel Daniel

  Nurse, Vices, Dangerous

  7 Copy quote

• By God, I cannot flatter, I do defy The tongues of soothers! but a braver place In my heart's love hath no man than yourself. Nay, task me to my word; approve me, lord.

  William Shakespeare

  Heart, Men, Tasks

  William Shakespeare, Herbert Weil, Judith Weil (2007). “The First Part of King Henry IV”, p.179, Cambridge University Press

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• Flattery is like friendship in show, but not in fruit.

  Socrates

  Fruit, Shows

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• Every flatterer lives at the expense of him who listens to him.

  Jean de La Fontaine

  Expenses, Flatterer

  "The Fables of La Fontaine: Book I". Book by Jean de La Fontaine, 1668.

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