"If we did not flatter ourselves, the..." - Quote by Francois De La Rochefoucauld
If we did not flatter ourselves, the flattery of others could never harm us.
More by Francois De La Rochefoucauld
“We are eager to believe that others are flawed because we are eager to believe in what we wish for.”
“It is more often from pride than from defective understanding that people oppose established opinions: they find the best places taken in the good party and are reluctant to accept inferior ones.”
“Moderation is an ostentatious proof of our strength of character.”
More on Self Deception
“We endeavor to make a virtue of the faults we are unwilling to correct.”
“The man who lies to himself can be more easily offended than anyone else. You know it is sometimes very pleasant to take offense, isn't it? A man may know that nobody has insulted him, but that he has invented the insult for himself, has lied and exaggerated to make it picturesque, has caught at a word and made a mountain out of a molehill--he knows that himself, yet he will be the first to take offense, and will revel in his resentment till he feels great pleasure in it.”
“If anyone can refute me-show me I'm making a mistake or looking at things from the wrong perspective-I'l l gladly change. It's the truth I'm after, and the truth never harmed anyone. What harms us is to persist in self-deceit and ignorance.”
More on Flattery
“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”
“O that men's ears should be To counsel deaf but not to flattery!”
“Nothing is so great an example of bad manners as flattery. If you flatter all the company, you please none; If you flatter only one or two, you offend the rest.”