Flattery Quotes - Page 10

• Flattery must be pretty thick before anybody objects to it.

  William Feather

  Objects, Thick

  William Feather (1949). “The Business of Life”

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• They do not abuse the king that flatter him. For flattery is the bellows blows up sin; The thing the which is flattered, but a spark To which that blast gives heat and stronger glowing.

  William Shakespeare

  Kings, Blow, Glowing

  William Shakespeare (2004). “Pericles, Prince of Tyre (Sparklesoup Classics)”, p.11, Sparklesoup LLC

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• In short, no association or alliance can be happy or stable without me. People can't long tolerate a ruler, nor can a master his servant, a maid her mistress, a teacher his pupil, a friend his friend nor a wife her husband, a landlord his tenant, a soldier his comrade nor a party-goer his companion, unless they sometimes have illusions about each other, make use of flattery, and have the sense to turn a blind eye and sweeten life for themselves with the honey of folly.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Teacher, Husband, Party

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• Self-love is the greatest of all flatterers.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Love, Self, Anorexia

  "The Moral Maxims and Reflections". Book by François de La Rochefoucauld. Maxim 2, 1678.

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• Learn that every flatterer Lives at the flattered listeners cost.

  Jean de La Fontaine

  Cost, Listeners, Flattered

  Jean de La Fontaine (1964). “The fables of La Fontaine”

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• Can honor's voice provoke the silent dust, or flattery soothe the dull, cold ear of death?

  Thomas Gray

  Dust, Voice, Honor

  1751 Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, l.41-4.

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• To experience commitment as the loss of options, a type of death, the death of childhood's limitless possibility, of the flattery of choice without duress-this will happen, mark me. Childhood's end.

  David Foster Wallace

  Commitment, Loss, Choices

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• Sycophancy toward those who hold power is a fact in every regime, and especially in a democracy, where, unlike tyranny, there is an accepted principle of legitimacy that breaks the inner will to resist.... Flattery of the people and incapacity to resist public opinion are the democratic vices, particularly among writers, artists, journalists and anyone else who is dependent on an audience.

  Allan Bloom

  Artist, People, Democracy

  Allan Bloom (2008). “Closing of the American Mind”, p.249, Simon and Schuster

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• The most ridiculous concept ever perpetrated by Homo Sapiens is that the Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of the Universes, wants the saccharine adoration of his creations, that he can be persuaded by their prayers, and becomes petulant if he does not receive this flattery. Yet this ridiculous notion, without one real shred of evidence to bolster it, has gone on to found one of the oldest, largest and least productive industries in history.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Religious, Prayer, Real

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• It was the maxim, I think, of Alphonsus of Aragon, that dead counsellors are safest. The grave puts an end to flattery and artifice, and the information we receive from books is pure from interest, fear, and ambition. Dead counsellors are likewise most instructive, because they are heard with patience and with reverence.

  Samuel Johnson

  Book, Ambition, Thinking

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy, Francis Pearson Walesby (1825). “The Rambler”, p.410

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• What I like is bottomless flattery.

  Peter O'Toole

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• True love is mixed up with birdlike squabbles, in which the disputants wound each other to the quick; but a quarrel without animus is, on the contrary, apiece of flattery to the dupe's conceit.

  Honore de Balzac

  Love Is, Dupes, Conceit

  Honore de Balzac (2014). “Poor Relations: Cousin Betty and Cousin Pons”, p.200, The Floating Press

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• Because all men are apt to flatter themselves, to entertain the addition of other men's praises is most perilous.

  Walter Raleigh

  Men, Praise

  Sir Walter Raleigh (1829). “The Works of Sir Walter Ralegh, Kt., Now First Collected: Miscellaneous works”

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• I see this evident, that we willingly accord to piety only the services that flatter our passions.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Passion, Accord, Piety

  Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.323, Stanford University Press

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• Let those flatter, who fear: it is not an American art. To give praise where it is not due, might be well from the venal, but would ill beseem those who are asserting the rights of human nature.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Art, Rights, Giving

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs, Correspondence, and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Late President of the United States”, p.118

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• Flatterers are the worst kind of traitors, for they will strengthen thy imperfections, encourage thee in all evils, correct thee in nothing, but so shadow and paint thy follies and vices as thou shalt never, by their will, discover good from evil, or vice from virtue.

  Walter Raleigh

  Evil, Imperfection, Shadow

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• It is an unquestionable truth, that the body of the people in every country desire sincerely its prosperity. But it is equally unquestionable that they do not possess the discernment and stability necessary for systematic government. To deny that they are frequently led into the grossest of errors, by misinformation and passion, would be a flattery which their own good sense must despise.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Country, Passion, Errors

  Alexander Hamilton, John Church Hamilton (1850). “The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Miscellanies, 1774-1789: A full vindication; The farmer refuted; Quebec bill; Resolutions in Congress; Letters from Phocion; New-York Legislature, etc”, p.447

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• Okay, I'm flattered, I appreciate your attempt at making me feel better after the fiasco with the pita rolls, but please ring up this beer I need it more than flattery.

  Amanda Filipacchi

  Beer, Feel Better, Appreciate

  Amanda Filipacchi (2014). “Love Creeps: A Novel”, p.22, Open Road Media

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• There can hardly, I believe, be imagined a more desirable pleasure than that of praise unmixed with any possibility of flattery.

  Richard Steele

  Believe, Praise, Pleasure

  Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1826). “The Spectator: With Notes, and a General Index”, p.310

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• The reason that adulation is not displeasing is that, though untrue, it shows one to be of consequence enough, in one way or other, to induce people to lie.

  Lord Byron

  Lying, People, Way

  Lord Byron (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Lord Byron (Illustrated)”, p.2986, Delphi Classics

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• Flattery is false money, which would not be current were it not for our vanity.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Vanity, Currents

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• If we never flattered ourselves we should have but scant pleasure.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Should Have, Pleasure, Flattered

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• Flattery'll get you anywhere.

  Charles Lederer

  "Fictional character: Dorothy Shaw". "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes", www.imdb.com. 1953.

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• The god-who-serves-ME requires flattery, not worship.

  Tom Wells

  Worship

  Tom Wells (1985). “A vision for missions”, Banner of Truth

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• Women are hard and proud and stubborn-hearted,
  Their heads being turned with praise and flattery;
  And that is why their lovers are afraid
  To tell them a plain story.

  William Butler Yeats

  Women, Stories, Stubborn

  William Butler Yeats (2010). “The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Vol II: The Plays”, p.270, Simon and Schuster

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