Flattery Quotes - Page 8

• If you mean to profit, learn to praise.

  Charles Churchill

  Mean, Praise, Profit

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• Nothing is harder to resist than a bit of flattery.

  Arnold Lobel

  Work, Harder, Bits

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• There would be no sunshine in society if the born flatterers, I mean the so-called amiable people, did not bring it in with them.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Mean, Sunshine, People

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• It's pleasant to hear these nice words while I'm still alive. I'd rather have the taffy than the epitaphy.

  Chauncey Depew

  Nice, Taffy, Alive

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• No man flatters the woman he truly loves.

  Henry Theodore Tuckerman

  Men

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• To be flattered is grateful, even when we know that our praises are not believed by those who pronounce them; for they prove, at least, our power, and show that our favour is valued, since it is purchased by the meanness of falsehood.

  Samuel Johnson

  Grateful, Favour, Praise

  Samuel Johnson, Hester Lynch Piozzi, James Boswell (1828). “The Beauties of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: Consisting of Maxims and Observations, Moral, Critical, and Miscellaneous: to which are Now Added Biographical Anecdotes of the Doctor, Selected from the Works of Mrs. Piozzi;--his Life, Recently Published by Mr. Boswell, and Other Authentic Testimonies; Also His Will, and the Sermon He Wrote for the Late Doctor Dodd”, p.181

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• Flattery is no more than what raises in a man's mind an idea of a preference which he has not.

  Edmund Burke

  Men, Ideas, Mind

  Edmund Burke (2012). “A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas”, p.34, Simon and Schuster

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• It is necessary to the success of flattery, that it be accommodated to particular circumstances or characters, and enter the heart on that side where the passions are ready to receive it.

  Samuel Johnson

  Passion, Heart, Character

  Samuel Johnson (1761). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes”, p.1

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• We sometimes imagine we hate flattery, but we only hate the way we are flattered.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Hate, Way, Sometimes

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• It is easier and handier for men to flatter than to praise.

  Jean Paul

  Men, Criticism, Praise

  "Titan: A Romance".

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• I wish it (Christianity) were more productive of good works ... I mean real good works ... not holy day keeping, sermon-hearing ... or making long prayers, filled with flatteries and compliments despised by wise men, and much less capable of pleasing the Deity.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Wise, Religious, Prayer

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• If any man flatters me, I'll flatter him again; tho' he were my best Friend.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Men, My Best Friend, Ifs

  Benjamin Franklin (2004). “Poor Richard's Almanack”, p.62, Barnes & Noble Publishing

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• We must suit the flattery to the mind and taste of the recipient. We do not put essences into hogsheads, nor porter into phials. Delicate minds may be disgusted by compliments that would please a grosser intellect; as some fine ladies who would be shocked at the idea of a dram will not refuse a liqueur.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Essence, Ideas, Mind

  Charles Caleb Colton (1821). “Lacon: or, Many things in few words”, p.190

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• Never was flattery lost on a poet's ear; a simple race, they waste their toil for the vain tribute of a smile.

  Walter Scott

  Simple, Race, Toil

  'The Lay of the Last Minstrel' (1805) canto 4, ad fin.

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• Flattery of the verbal kind is gross. In short, applause is of too coarse a nature to be swallowed in the gross, though the extract or tincture be ever so agreeable.

  William Shenstone

  Kind, Applause, Coarse

  William Shenstone, Phillis Wheatley (1773). “The works, in verse and prose of William Shenstone, esq. ...”, p.218

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• It is scarcely credible to what degree discernment may be dazzled by the mist of pride, and wisdom infatuated by the intoxication of flattery.

  Samuel Johnson

  Pride, Degrees, May

  Samuel Johnson (1848). “The Wisdom of the Rambler, Adventurer, and Idler”, p.216

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• Invitation is the sincerest flattery.

  Carolyn Wells

  Invitations

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• Flatterers are the worst kind of enemies.
  [Lat., Pessimum genus inimicorum laudantes.]

  Tacitus

  Enemy, Kind, Worst

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• When we are not engaged in thinking about some definite problem, we usually spend about 95 percent of our time thinking about ourselves. Now, if we stop thinking about ourselves for a while and begin to think of the other person's good points, we won't have to resort to flattery so cheap and false that it can be spotted almost before it is out of the mouth.

  Dale Carnegie

  Thinking, Mouths, Problem

  Dale Carnegie (0101). “Best of Dale Carnegie Vol-I”, p.34, Prabhat Prakashan

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• Imitation is obviously a great form of flattery.

  Peyton Manning

  Imitation, Form

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• Direct, forceful, energetic. Loves power, eats up publicity and flattery... Can turn on charm at will and knows it.

  Joseph Stilwell

  Publicity, Power Of Love, Charm

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• Approve not of him who commends all you say.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Benjamin Franklin (2008). “The Way to Wealth and Poor Richard's Almanac”, p.12, Nayika Publishing

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• Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery. . . . If you want to influence someone, listen to what he says. . . . When he finishes talking, ask him about any points that you do not understand.

  Joyce Brothers

  Talking, Thought Provoking, Listening

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• Let it not, therefore, be said that the Sovereign is not subject to the laws of his State; since the contrary is a true proposition of the right of nations, which flattery has sometimes attacked but good princes have always defended as the tutelary divinity of their dominions. How much more legitimate is it to say with the wise Plato, that the perfect felicity of a kingdom consists in the obedience of subjects to their prince, and of the prince to the laws, and in the laws being just and constantly directed to the public good!

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Wise, Plato, Law

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Gustave Le Bon, Charles Mackay, Wilfred Trotter, Everett Dean Martin (2017). “WHAT IS MOB MENTALITY? - 8 Essential Books on Crowd Psychology: Psychology of Revolution, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, Instincts of the Herd, The Social Contract, A Moving-Picture of Democracy...”, p.252, e-artnow

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• We didn't think much in the air corps of a fellow who wangled a cushy job out of his C.O. by buttering him up. It was hard for me to believe that God thought much of a man who tried to wangle salvation by fulsome flattery. I should have thought the worship most pleasing to him was to do your best according to your lights.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  God, Jobs, Believe

  W. Somerset Maugham (2008). “The Razor's Edge”, p.275, Random House

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