Flattery Quotes - Page 18

• There are some who affect a want of affectation, and flatter themselves that they are above flattery; they are proud of being thought extremely humble, and would go round the world to punish those who thought them capable of revenge; they are so satisfied of the suavity of their own temper that they would quarrel with their dearest benefactor only for doubting it.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Revenge, Humble, Doubt

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.42

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• Alas! the praise given to the ear
  Ne'er was nor ne'er can be sincere.

  Letitia Elizabeth Landon

  Ears, Praise, Sincere

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• Human life is thus only a perpetual illusion; men deceive and flatter each other. No one speaks of us in our presence as he does of us in our absence. Human society is founded on mutual deceit; few friendships would endure if each knew what his friend said of him in his absence, although he then spoke in sincerity and without passion.

  Blaise Pascal

  Passion, Men, Deception

  Blaise Pascal (2013). “Pascal's Pensees”, p.35, Simon and Schuster

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• Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all... As long as matters are really hopeful, hope is mere flattery or platitude; it is only when everything is hopeless that hope begins to be a strength.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Hope, Mean, Long

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• To be most effective, flattery is always best applied with a trowel.

  Alan Bradley

  Alan Bradley (2016). “The Flavia de Luce Series 7-Book Bundle”, p.576, Delacorte Press

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• Dogs live with man as courtiers 'round a monarch, steeped in the flattery of his notice ... to push their favor in this world of pickings and caresses is, perhaps, the business of their lives.

  Robert Louis Stevenson

  Dog, Men, World

  Robert Louis Stevenson (2016). “Memories and Portraits: Stevenson's Vol. 21”, p.70, VM eBooks

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• No wonder, Sir, that he is vain; a man who is perpetually flattered in every mode that can be conceived. So many bellows have blown the fire, that one wonders he is not by this time become a cinder.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Fire, Wonder

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1824). “The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., Comprehending an Account of His Studies, and Numerous Works, in Chronological Order: A Series of His Epistolary Correspondence and Conversations with Many Eminent Persons; and Various Original Pieces of His Composition, Never Before Published; the Whole Exhibiting a View of Literature and Literary Men in Great Britain, for Near Half a Century During which He Flourished”, p.209

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• Slander, in the strict meaning of the term, comes under the head of lying; but it is a kind of lying which, like its antithesis flattery, ought to be set apart for special censure.

  Washington Gladden

  Lying, Special, Kind

  Washington Gladden (1883). “Things New and Old in Discourses of Christian Truth and Life”

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• In solitude the mind gains strength, and learns to lean upon herself; in the world it seeks or accepts of a few treacherous supports--the feigned compassion of one, the flattery of a second, the civilities of a third, the friendship of a fourth--they all deceive, and bring the mind back to retirement, reflection, and books.

  Laurence Sterne

  Retirement, Book, Reflection

  Laurence Sterne (1811). “The Beauties of Sterne: With Some Account of His Life”, p.139

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• I have always hated biography, and more especially, autobiography. If biography, the writer invariably finds it necessary to plaster the subject with praises, flattery and adulation and to invest him with all the Christian graces. If autobiography, the same plan is followed, but the writer apologizes for it.

  Carolyn Wells

  Christian, Grace, Biographies

  Carolyn Wells (1937). “The Rest of My Life”

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• I never pretended to be rock star. I would make a lousy rock star. I don't have the right voice for it. I don't have the "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll" spirit. But the greatest flattery in the last couple of years is being called a "badass" by young singers.

  Joan Baez

  Couple, Badass, Drug

  Source: www.chicagotribune.com

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• It is better to fall among crows than flatterers; for those devour only the dead - these the living.

  Antisthenes

  Life, Fall, Crow

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• The world is a king, and like a king, desires flattery in return for favor; but true art is selfish and perverse — it will not submit to the mold of flattery.

  Ludwig van Beethoven

  Art, Kings, Selfish

  Ludwig van Beethoven (1905). “Beethoven, the man and the artist: as revealed in his own words”

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• If imitation is the greatest form of flattery,
  Punk, don't flatter me.

  J-Ro

  Rap, Hip Hop, Punk

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• Always try to grow in your garden some plant or plants out of the ordinary, something your neighbors never attempted. For you can receive no greater flattery than to have a gardener of equal intelligence stand before your plant and ask, "What is that?"

  Richardson Wright

  Funny, Education, Learning

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• A compliment is something like a kiss through a veil.

  Victor Hugo

  Inspirational, Kissing, Veils

  Victor Hugo (2016). “Les Misérables”, p.1169, My Ebook Publishing House

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• There's two things that you don't listen to: flattery, which can't help you, and abuse, which can't hurt you. You have to look at the facts.

  Jim Tressel

  Hurt, Two, Abuse

  "The October 11th Football Press Luncheon". www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com. October 11, 2005.

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• Compliments and flattery oftenest excite my contempt by the pretension they imply; for who is he that assumes to flatter me? To compliment often implies an assumption of superiority in the complimenter. It is, in fact, a subtle detraction.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Facts, Assuming, Assumption

  Henry David Thoreau (1929). “Early spring in Massachusetts and Summer”

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• We rightly scorn those who have no made use of their defects, who have not exploited their deficiencies, and have not been enriched by their losses, as we despise any man who does not suffer at being a man or simply at being. Hence no graver insult can be inflicted than to call someone 'happy', no greater flattery than to grant him a 'vein of melancholy'... This is because gaiety is link to no important action and because, except for the mad, no one laughs when he is alone.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Loss, Men, Mad

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• People who wish to numb our caution in dealing with them by means of flattery are employing a dangerous expedient, like a sleeping draught, which, if it does not put us to sleep, keeps us all the more awake.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Mean, Sleep, People

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• Praise is a more ingenious, concealed, and subtle kind of flattery, that satisfies both the giver and the receiver, though by verydifferent ways. The one accepts it as a reward due to his merit; the other gives it that he may be looked upon as a just and discerning person.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Giving, May, Rewards

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• A flatterer never seems absurd: The flatter'd always takes his word.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Humorous, Absurd, Seems

  Benjamin Franklin (2004). “Poor Richard's Almanack”, p.84, Barnes & Noble Publishing

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• Flattery and deceit are the darlings of great men, and so with these men spread the butter on thick, if you want to get something out of them, otherwise you'll come home to me with a full belly and an empty purse.

  Pietro Aretino

  Home, Men, Deceit

  Pietro Aretino (2003). “The School of Whoredom”, Hesperus Press

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• Sarcasm is the lowest form of humor but the highest form of flattery.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Sarcasm, Form, Lowest

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• Women of no beauty may yet be flattered to believe they possess some; others of a moderate share that they have a great deal; but those of elegance and charm generally know the perfection of their external graces so well, that they seem to covet that flattery most which heightens the opinion of their wit and judgment.

  Norm MacDonald

  Believe, Perfection, Grace

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