Flattery Quotes - Page 13

• The best way to sell yourself to others is first to sell the others to yourself. Check yourself against this list of obstacles to a pleasing personality: interrupting others; sarcasm; vanity; being a poor listener; insincere flattery; finding fault; challenging others without good cause; giving unsolicited advice; complaining; attitude of superiority; envy of others' success; poor posture and dress.

  Harold Geneen

  Attitude, Sarcasm, Vanity

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• The people at the very top could fall by and grace you with their presence and give you a little largesse, and you'd be "Oh, I'm so beloved." In a way, it was kind of like flattery. The middle managers didn't quite have that cachet, but at the same time, they had to seem like they were of that caliber. So there's a little bit of loneliness at the heart of those with a little bit of power.

  Joshua Ferris

  Loneliness, Fall, Heart

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• We never slam the door on flattery, we nudge it shut like a man rejecting his mistress: if she nudges back, we're delighted – and if she breaks it down, we rejoice.

  Walter Wangerin

  Men, Doors, Mistress

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• flattery would be worse than vain; there is no consolation in flattery.

  Charlotte Bronte

  Would Be, Vain, Consolation

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• After watching the State of the Union address the other night [1994], I'm reminded of the old adage that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Only in this case, it's not flattery, but grand larceny: the intellectual theft of ideas that you and I recognize as our own. Speech delivery counts for little on the world stage unless you have convictions, and, yes, the vision to see beyond the front row seats.

  Ronald Reagan

  Leadership, Night, Ideas

  Remarks on the Occasion of 83rd Birthday Gala, delivered 3 February 1994

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• We must define flattery and praise; they are distinct. Trajan was encouraged to virtue by the panegyric Pliny; Tiberius became obstinate in vice from the flattery of his senators.

  Louis XVI of France

  Vices, Praise, Virtue

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• Take care how you listen to the voice of the flatterer, who, in return for his little stock, expects to derive from you considerable advantage. If one day you do not comply with his wishes, be imputes to you two hundred defects instead of perfections.

  Saadi

  Two, Voice, Perfection

  Saadi, Francis Gladwin, Eric Serejski (2016). “Gulistan or Rose Garden”, p.153, Innovations and Information

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• Very ugly or very beautiful women should be flattered on their understanding, and mediocre ones on their beauty.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Beautiful, Understanding, Ugly

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• There is no tongue that flatters like a lover's; and yet, in the exaggeration of his feelings, flattery seems to him commonplace. Strange and prodigal exuberance, which soon exhausts itself by flowing!

  Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

  Feelings, Tongue, Lovers

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• The gallantry of the mind consists in agreeable flattery.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Mind, Gallantry

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• Ausonius must be read to be believed! As poet, no subject is too trivial for him; as courtier, no flattery too excessive.

  Decimius Magnus Ausonius

  Poet, Courtiers, Subjects

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• When the world frowns, we can face it; but let it smile, and we are undone.

  Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

  World, Faces, Undone

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• We are not fond of praising, and never praise any one except from interested motives. Praise is a clever, concealed, and delicate flattery, which gratifies in different ways the giver and the receiver. The one takes it as a recompense of his merit, and the other bestows it to display his equity and discernment.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Clever, Different, Way

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• We sometimes think that we hate flattery, but we only hate the manner in which it is done.
  [Fr., On croit quelquefoir hair la flatterie; maid on ne hait que a maniere de flatter.]

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Hate, Thinking, Hair

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• It is possible to be below flattery as well as above it. One who trusts nobody will not trust sycophants. One who does not value real glory will not value its counterfeit.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Real, Sycophants, Doe

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• Were there no fools, there would be no flatterers.

  Norm MacDonald

  Would Be, Fool, Flatterer

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• Flattery succeeds best on minds previously occupied by conceit.

  Norm MacDonald

  Mind, Succeed, Conceit

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• There is not one of us that would not be worse than kings, if so continually corrupted as they are with a sort of vermin called flatterers.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Kings, Vermin, Ifs

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• Flattery has to overcome my mistrust, and it does.

  Mason Cooley

  Overcoming, Doe, Mistrust

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• The Marquis believed himself to be hardened against flattery. He thought that he had experienced every variety, but he discovered that he was mistaken: the blatantly worshipful look in the eyes of a twelve-year-old, anxiously raised to his, was new to him, and it pierced his defences.

  Georgette Heyer

  Eye, Years, Twelve

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• Grant me prudently to avoid him that flatters me, and to endure patiently him that contradicts me.

  Thomas a Kempis

  Criticism, Praise, Endure

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• If your enemies see that you grow courageous, and that you will neither be seduced by flatteries nor disheartened by the pains and trials of your journey, but rather are contented with them, they will grow afraid of you.

  Henry Suso

  Pain, Journey, Temptation

  Blessed Henry Suso, Aeterna Press (2015). “A Little Book of Eternal Wisdom”, p.13, Aeterna Press

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• Never patronise someone who knows they don't deserve it, for they will be quick to compliment your failures.

  John Stride

  Compliment, Knows, Deserve

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• A few good compliments produce a wealth of good and often financial benefits.

  Mariette Hartley

  Benefits, Financial, Wealth

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• For awareness you need not go to the Himalayas; you need not go anywhere. Your life gives you enough opportunities to be aware. Somebody insults you - listen to it in full awareness. And you will be surprised - the insult is no more an insult. You may even smile. It does not hurt; it hurts only when received in unawareness. Somebody praises and appreciates you - listen with alertness. And then nobody can persuade you to do foolish things. Nobody can bribe you; flattery becomes impossible. You will smile at the whole nonsense.

  Rajneesh

  Hurt, Opportunity, Insults You

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