Flattery Quotes

Most popular flattery quotes

What really flatters a man is that you think him worth flattering. - George Bernard Shaw quote.
What really flatters a man is that you think him worth flattering.
Flattery is like counterfeit money which, but for vanity, would have no circulation. - François de La Rochefoucauld quote.
Flattery is like counterfeit money which, but for vanity, would have no circulation.

vanity

Let us believe neither half of the good people tell us of ourselves, nor half the evil they say of others. - Jean Antoine Petit-Senn quote.
Let us believe neither half of the good people tell us of ourselves, nor half the evil they say of others.

gossip

Our credulity is greatest concerning the things we know least about. And since we know least about ourselves, we are ready to believe all that is said about us. Hence the mysterious power of both flattery and calumny. - Eric Hoffer quote.
Our credulity is greatest concerning the things we know least about. And since we know least about ourselves, we are ready to believe all that is said about us. Hence the mysterious power of both flattery and calumny.

know yourself introspection

When flatterers meet, the devil goes to dinner.
— English proverb

English proverbs proverbs

Of all music, that which most pleases the ear is applause. But it has no score. It ends and is carried off by the wind. Nothing remains.

praise

Flattery is counterfeit money which, but for vanity, would have no circulation. - François de La Rochefoucauld quote.
Flattery is counterfeit money which, but for vanity, would have no circulation.

vanity

Beware the flatterer: he feeds you with an empty spoon.
— COSINO DEGREGRIO
Flatterers look like friends, as wolves like dogs. - George Chapman quote.
Flatterers look like friends, as wolves like dogs.
The punishment for vanity is flattery.

vanity

We protest against unjust criticism, but we accept unearned applause.

human nature

I have yet to be bored by someone paying me a compliment.
Flattery is all right—if you don't inhale. - Adlai Stevenson quote.
Flattery is all right—if you don't inhale.
Praise, if you don't swallow it, can't hurt you. - Mort Walker quote.
Praise, if you don't swallow it, can't hurt you.

praise

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

admiration

Attention is a silent and perpetual flattery. - Madame Swetchine quote.
Attention is a silent and perpetual flattery.

Attention

Man would not succumb so easily to flattery if he did not begin by flattering himself.
There is no such flatterer as is a man's self. - Francis Bacon quote.
There is no such flatterer as is a man's self.

self-deception the self

Every one that flatters thee
Is no friend in misery.
Words are easy, like the wind;
Faithful friends are hard to find.
Mountains of gold would not seduce some men, yet flattery would break them down. - Henry Ward Beecher quote.
Mountains of gold would not seduce some men, yet flattery would break them down.

proverbs

A flattering mouth worketh ruin.

proverbs biblical

Flattery is like Cologne water, to be smelt of, not swallowed.
Flattery is so necessary to all of us that we flatter one another just to be flattered in return. - Marjorie Bowen quote.
Flattery is so necessary to all of us that we flatter one another just to be flattered in return.
Flattery is a juggler, and no kin unto sincerity. - Sir Thomas Browne quote.
Flattery is a juggler, and no kin unto sincerity.
Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver. - Edmund Burke quote.
Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver.
Some indeed there are who profess to despise all flattery, but even these are nevertheless to be flattered, by being told that they do despise it. - C. C. Colton quote.
Some indeed there are who profess to despise all flattery, but even these are nevertheless to be flattered, by being told that they do despise it.
Imitation is the sincerest of flattery. - C. C. Colton quote.
Imitation is the sincerest of flattery.

imitation

The lie that flatters I abhor the most. - William Cowper quote.
The lie that flatters I abhor the most.

lies

If a man is vain, flatter. If timid, flatter. If boastful, flatter. In all history, too much flattery never lost a gentleman.

men and women

We can be stabbed without being flattered, but we're rarely flattered without being stabbed.
We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter. - Denis Diderot quote.
We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.
Every one likes flattery; and when you come to Royalty you should lay it on with a trowel. - Benjamin Disraeli quote.
Every one likes flattery; and when you come to Royalty you should lay it on with a trowel.
He was as sensitive to flattery on the score of his art as any girl could be of her beauty. - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle quote.
He was as sensitive to flattery on the score of his art as any girl could be of her beauty.
Flattery, of a tactful sort, is sometimes useful in conversation.  But too much flattery is like too much sugar: it sickens.
We love flattery, even though we are not deceived by it, because it shows that we are of importance enough to be courted. - Ralph Waldo Emerson quote.
We love flattery, even though we are not deceived by it, because it shows that we are of importance enough to be courted.
Flattery must be pretty thick before anybody objects to it.
Flattery, if judiciously administered, is always acceptable, however much we may despise the flatterer. - Lady Blessington quote.
Flattery, if judiciously administered, is always acceptable, however much we may despise the flatterer.
Just praise is only a debt, but flattery is a present. - Samuel Johnson quote.
Just praise is only a debt, but flattery is a present.
Of all wild beasts preserve me from a tyrant;
And of all tame, a flatterer. - Ben Jonson quote.
Of all wild beasts preserve me from a tyrant;
And of all tame, a flatterer.
Flattery is like chewing gum.  Enjoy it but don't swallow it.
Self-love is the greatest of all flatterers. - François de La Rochefoucauld quote.
Self-love is the greatest of all flatterers.
We sometimes think that we hate flattery, but we only hate the manner in which it is done. - François de La Rochefoucauld quote.
We sometimes think that we hate flattery, but we only hate the manner in which it is done.
Flattery is praise without foundation.
Eliza Leslie Miss Leslie’s Behavior Book: A Guide and Manual for Ladies

praise

The more we love our friends, the less we flatter them; it is by excusing nothing that pure love shows through.

love

A little flattery will support a man through great fatigue.
Who flatters is of all mankind the lowest,
Save he who courts flattery.
Flattery is a sugar-coated insult.
It is easier and handier for men to flatter than to praise. - Jean Paul quote.
It is easier and handier for men to flatter than to praise.

praise

A flatterer is said to be a beast that biteth smiling . . . .  But it is hard to know them from friends, they are so obsequious and full of protestations; for a wolf resembles a dog, so doth a flatterer a friend. - Sir Walter Raleigh quote.
A flatterer is said to be a beast that biteth smiling . . . .  But it is hard to know them from friends, they are so obsequious and full of protestations; for a wolf resembles a dog, so doth a flatterer a friend.
Flattery affects a man like any other sort of "dope."  It stimulates and exhilarates him for the moment, but usually ends by going to his head and making him act foolish. - Helen Rowland quote.
Flattery affects a man like any other sort of "dope."  It stimulates and exhilarates him for the moment, but usually ends by going to his head and making him act foolish.
Academic research has found that people's susceptibility to flattery is without limit and beyond satire . . . even blatantly insincere, computer-generated flattery works. - Joseph Schumpeter quote.
Academic research has found that people's susceptibility to flattery is without limit and beyond satire . . . even blatantly insincere, computer-generated flattery works.
For ne'er
Was flattery lost on poet's ear:
A simple race!
They waste their toil
For the vain tribute of a smile. - Sir Walter Scott quote.
For ne'er
Was flattery lost on poet's ear:
A simple race!
They waste their toil
For the vain tribute of a smile.

poets

For love of grace,
Lay not that flattering unction to your soul. - William Shakespeare quote.
For love of grace,
Lay not that flattering unction to your soul.
But when I tell him he hates flatterers,
He says he does, being then most flattered. - William Shakespeare quote.
But when I tell him he hates flatterers,
He says he does, being then most flattered.
Flattery is pathetically easy to spot, however sly you may think you're being about it.
The aim of flattery is to soothe and encourage us by assuring us of the truth of an opinion we have already formed about ourselves. - Dame Edith Sitwell quote.
The aim of flattery is to soothe and encourage us by assuring us of the truth of an opinion we have already formed about ourselves.
Women have, in general, but one object, which is their beauty; upon which, scarce any flattery is too gross for them to swallow. - Lord Chesterfield quote.
Women have, in general, but one object, which is their beauty; upon which, scarce any flattery is too gross for them to swallow.
Among all the diseases of the mind there is not one more epidemical or more pernicious than the love of flattery. - Sir Richard Steele quote.
Among all the diseases of the mind there is not one more epidemical or more pernicious than the love of flattery.
'Tis an old maxim in the schools,
That flattery's the food of fools;
Yet now and then your men of wit
Will condescend to take a bit. - Jonathan Swift quote.
'Tis an old maxim in the schools,
That flattery's the food of fools;
Yet now and then your men of wit
Will condescend to take a bit.
A prince who writes against flattery is as singular as a pope who writes against infallibility. - Voltaire quote.
A prince who writes against flattery is as singular as a pope who writes against infallibility.
Bald heads, forgetful of their sins,
Old, learned, respectable bald heads
Edit and annotate the lines
That young men tossing on their beds,
Rhymed out in love's despair
to flatter beauty's ignorant ear. - W. B. Yeats quote.
Bald heads, forgetful of their sins,
Old, learned, respectable bald heads
Edit and annotate the lines
That young men tossing on their beds,
Rhymed out in love's despair
to flatter beauty's ignorant ear.