Flattery Quotes

Should the poor be flattered? No; let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp, and crook the pregnant hinges of the knee where thrift may follow fawning.

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.

To flatter and follow others, without being flattered and followed in turn, is but a state of half enjoyment.

They lie deadly that tell you have good faces.

He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander.

What really flatters a man is that you think him worth flattering.

Flattery is like a painted armor; only for show.

Where Young must torture his invention To flatter knaves, or lose his pension.

They told me I was everything. 'Tis a lie, I am not ague-proof.

You know That I do fawn on men, and hug them hard, And after scandal them.

Praise is flattery, artful, hidden, delicate, which gratifies differently him who praises and him who is praised. The one takes it as the reward of merit, the other bestows it to show his impartiality and knowledge.

One can also be undignified and flattering toward a virtue.

By candle-light nobody would have taken you for above five-and-twenty.

Though flattery blossoms like friendship, yet there is a vast difference in the fruit.

When your friends begin to flatter you on how young you look, it's a sure sign you're getting old.

Oh, flatter me; for love delights in praises.

Lay not that flattering unction to your soul, That not your trespass but my madness speaks.

He that loves to be flattered is worthy o' the flatterer.

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.]

He who can not learn to love must flatter.

Flattery is a counterfeit money which, but for vanity, would have no circulation.

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

The gallantry of the mind consists in agreeable flattery.

A dozen direct censures are easier to bear than one morganatic compliment.

Twas never merry world Since lowly feigning was called compliment.

She's so in love with me, she doesn't know anything. That's why she's in love with me.

He does me double wrongThat wounds me with the flatteries of his tongue.

Hide not thy poison with such sugar'd words

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.

Well, I suppose you know that men will stand a good deal when they are flattered.

To praise princes for virtues they do not possess is to insult them without fear of consequences.

The customer is the immediate jewel of our souls. Him we flatter, him we feast, compliment, vote for, and will not contradict.

A flatterer is a friend who is your inferior, or pretends to be so.

There is no other way to guard yourself against flattery than by making men understand that telling you the truth will not offend you.

Live loath'd and long,Most smiling, smooth, detested parasites,Courteous destroyers, affable wolves, meek bears,You fools of fortune, trencher friends, time fliesCap and knee slaves, vapors, and minute jacks.

There is flattery in friendship.

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

Sometimes we think we dislike flattery, but it is only the way it is done that we dislike.

If we did not flatter ourselves, the flattery of others could never harm us.

Flattery is the worst and falsest way of showing our esteem.

Love of flattery, in most men, proceeds from the mean opinion they have of themselves; in women, from the contrary.

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

Lovely & too charming Fair one, notwithstanding your forbidding Squint, your greazy tresses & your swelling Back, which are more frightful than imagination can paint or pen describe, I cannot refrain from expressing my raptures, at the engaging Qualities of your Mind, which so amply atone for the Horror, with which your first appearance must ever inspire the unwary visitor.

If he be so resolved, I can o'ersway him; for he loves to hear That unicorns may be betrayed with trees And bears with glasses, elephants with holes, Lions with toils, and men with flatterers

That's why the army sends all its future generals to what we call "charm school." As soon as you are a general, people think that you know everything. You think yourself that you have become omniscient and omnipotent. Be careful, because people want to do everything they can to please the general, and you need to guard against this.

Flattery is like friendship in show, but not in fruit.

With men he can be rational and unaffected, but when he has ladies to please, every feature works.

Flattery is a kind of bad money, to which our vanity gives us currency.

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.

The habit of paying compliments kept a man's tongue oiled without any expense.

Compliments make me vain: & when I am vain, I am insolent & overbearing. It is a pity, too, because I love compliments. I love them even when they are not so. My child, I can live on a good compliment two weeks with nothing else to eat.

Let flattery, the handmaid of the vices, be far removed .

Revile those who flatter you.

My dear young lady, there was a great deal of truth; I dare say, in what you said, and you looked very pretty while you said it, which is much more important.

Approve not of him who commends all you say.

The most that can be said of flattery is that it is sometimes a cheap psychological trick with which charlatans and dishonest people lull others into a state of carelessness while they pick their pockets.

O that men's ears should be To counsel deaf but not to flattery!

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.

"She's a very charming and delightful creature," quoth Mr. Robert Sawyer, in reply; "and has only one fault that I know of, Ben. It happens, unfortunately, that that single blemish is a want of taste. She don't like me."

Because I cannot flatter and look fair,Smile in men's faces, smooth, deceive, and cog,Duck with French nods and apish courtesy,I must be held a rancorous enemy.