"Flattery is a kind of bad money,..." - Quote by Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“A resolution never to deceive exposes a man to be often deceived.”

“If we never flattered ourselves we should have but scant pleasure.”

“The only good copies are those which make us see the absurdity of bad originals.”

“Self-love is the greatest of all flatterers.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch-hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who, for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Barontage; there he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a distressed one; . . .”

“Penetration has an air of divination; it pleases our vanity more than any other quality of the mind.”

“Beauty's a doubtful good, a glass, a flower, Lost, faded, broken, dead within an hour; And beauty, blemish'd once, for ever's lost, In spite of physic, painting, pain, and cost.”