Best 221 quotes in «flattery quotes» category

One can also be undignified and flattering toward a virtue.

Patron: One who countenances, supports or protects. Commonly a wretch who supports with insolence, and is repaid in flattery.

Praise to the undeserving is severe satire.

Perfumed and gallant words make our ears belch.

Persons who discover a flatterer, do not always disapprove him, because he imagines them considerable enough to deserve his applications.

Praise a stranger with a few nice words and he becomes a stranger that calls you a friend.

The love of one's own sex is precious, for it is neither provoked by vanity nor retained by flattery; it is genuine and sincere.

The flatterer easily insinuates himself into the closet, while honest merit stands shivering in the hall or antechamber.

Probably one of the reasons why gushing is so unattractive is that it leaves nothing for the listener to do.

Sarcasm is the lowest form of humor but the highest form of flattery.

Slander, in the strict meaning of the term, comes under the head of lying; but it is a kind of lying which, like its antithesis flattery, ought to be set apart for special censure.

The habit of pleasing by flattery makes a language soft; the fear of offending by truth makes it circuitous and conventional.

There is not one of us that would not be worse than kings, if so continually corrupted as they are with a sort of vermin called flatterers.

The most subtle flattery that a woman can receive is by actions, not by words.

There is flattery in friendship.

There is no flattery so adroit or effectual as that of implicit assent.

There is no food more satiating than milk and honey; and just as such foods produce disgust for the palate, so perfumed and gallant words make our ears belch.

The most dangerous of all flattery is the inferiority of those about us.

The most skillful flattery is to let a person talk on, and be a listener.

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.

There can hardly, I believe, be imagined a more desirable pleasure than that of praise unmixed with any possibility of flattery.

There is nothing in the world more difficult than candor, and nothing easier than flattery. If there is a hundredth of a fraction of a false note to candor, it immediately produces dissonance, and as a result, exposure. But in flattery, even if everything is false down to the last note, it is still pleasant, and people will listen not without pleasure; with coarse pleasure, perhaps, but pleasure nevertheless.

The same man cannot be both Friend and Flatterer.

The skilful class of flatterers praise the discourse of an ignorant friend and the face of a deformed one.

They say one of the greatest forms of flattery is for your son to follow in your footsteps. And so I enjoy that greatest form of flattery, without a doubt.

We must define flattery and praise; they are distinct. Trajan was encouraged to virtue by the panegyric Pliny; Tiberius became obstinate in vice from the flattery of his senators.

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

To be flattered is grateful, even when we know that our praises are not believed by those who pronounce them; for they prove, at least, our power, and show that our favour is valued, since it is purchased by the meanness of falsehood.

Very ugly or very beautiful women should be flattered on their understanding, and mediocre ones on their beauty.

To be a man's own fool is bad enough, but the vain man is everybody's.

We should keep silent about those in power; to speak well of them almost implies flattery; to speak ill of them while they are alive is dangerous, and when they are dead is cowardly.

Were there no fools, there would be no flatterers.

When the world frowns, we can face it; but let it smile, and we are undone.

When fortune flatters, she does it to betray.

What valor cannot win, flattery may.

When we are not engaged in thinking about some definite problem, we usually spend about 95 percent of our time thinking about ourselves. Now, if we stop thinking about ourselves for a while and begin to think of the other person's good points, we won't have to resort to flattery so cheap and false that it can be spotted almost before it is out of the mouth.

Women have, in general, but ne object, which is their beauty; upon which, scarce any flattery is too gross for them to swallow.

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

You can stroke people with words.

Your flattery is as full of contempt as your insults were.

As for those who spite you, and seemingly just because, it's only evident that they're learning from you. Maybe you taste bad - kind of like medicine, kind of like truth - and to them, you're thought unsafe. There is flattery in being chewed out and spit up. Humans have always had a hard time digesting foreign things.

A beautiful woman needs no embellishments. But a prideful man may give them to her nevertheless.

After this manner conceive that a flatterer differs from a friend: for it often happens to both that they engage in the same employments and the same associations; but the one differs from the other in use, in the end, and in the disposition of the soul: for the friend considers that which appears to him to be good to belong also in common to his friend; and, whether this proves to be painful or pleasant, he partakes equally of it with him; but the flatterer, following his own desires, conducts the association to his own advantage. The friend desires an equality of good, the flatterer his own private good. The one aspires after equal honour in virtue, the other after superiority in pleasure. The one in conversation desires an equal freedom of speech, the other servile submission. The one loves truth in association, the other deception; and the one looks to future emolument, but the other to present delight. The one requires to be reminded of his good actions, the other wishes them to be involved in oblivion. The one takes care of the possessions of his friend, as of things common, the other destroys them, as being the property of another. The company of a friend in prosperity is most opportune, and in calamity is most equal; but a flatterer can never be satiated with prosperity, and in adversity he is never to be seen. Friendship is laudable, flattery detestable; for friendship attends to equality of retribution, but this flattery mutilates: for he who pays servile attention to another through indigence, that his wants may be supplied, so far as he does not receive an equal submission in return, will reprobate the inequality. A friend, when his friendship is concealed, is unhappy; on the contrary, a flatterer is miserable when is flattery is not concealed. Friendship when tried is strengthened, flattery is confuted, by time. Friendship requires not to be corroborated by advantage, but flattery cannot subsist without profit; and if men have any communion with the divinities, the pious man is a friend to divinity, but the superstitious is a flatterer of divinity; and the pious man is blessed, but the superstitious is miserable.

Any halfway clever devil would decorate the highway to Hell as beautiful as possible.

aphorism 129: I would have every thought stoop and touch the Earth but that I already know the impossibility of the effort. A thought seems to have a life of its own and would rather leave itself open to flattering interpretations.

Apprenez que tout flatteur Vit aux dépens de celui qui l'écoute : Cette leçon vaut bien un fromage, sans doute. Flatterers thrive on fools' credulity. The lesson's worth a cheese, don't you agree?

Assuming what people want is about as controlled as using fireworks to start a fire.

Becoming accomplished at what you do is no easy task, nor is the goal reached in a day. The process is time consuming, requires dedication, innovative ideas, meticulous strategizing and can be quite tedious at times. For many, the ultimate objective is to challenge the status quo, change the game, chart unexplored territory, and set a new standard of excellence. Sometimes hitting those marks is its own reward. Seeing others apply your blueprint to construct their own path to success is even more fulfilling. Leaders are motivated by believers! Bask in the imitation of others. After all, it is the highest form of flattery!

A sweet soul will take you further than a sweet tongue.

a walther ppk. you're a james bond fan, i imagine....