"Flattery is a base coin which is..." - Quote by Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“The man that thinks he loves his mistress for her own sake is mightily mistaken.”

“The sure mark of one born with noble qualities is being born without envy.”

“We confess to little faults only to persuade ourselves we have no great ones.”

“'T is 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 dozen direct censures are easier to bear than one morganatic compliment.”

“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.”

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

“Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good; a shining gloss that fadeth suddenly; a flower that dies when it begins to bud; a doubtful good, a gloss, a glass, a flower, lost, faded, broken, dead within an hour.”

“The most vulnerable and yet most unconquerable of things is human vanity; nay, through being wounded its strength increases and can grow to giant proportions.”