Flattery - Quotes

A flatterer is someone who says things to your face he would not say behind your back. - Unknown

A flatterer never seems absurd: the flattered always takes his word. - Benjamin Franklin

Adroit observers will find that some who affect to dislike flattery, may yet be flattered indirectly, by a well-seasoned abuse and ridicule of their rivals. - Charles Caleb Colton

Although a skilful flatterer is a most delightful companion if you have him all to yourself, his taste becomes very doubtful when he takes to complimenting other people. - Charles Dickens

At its best, flattery is truth well dressed, and it is best dressed with fine see-through fabrics. Honest flattery can caress a lover, cover up a gaffe, and muffle aggression. - Willis Goth Regier

Avoid flatterers, for they are thieves in disguise. - William Penn

Because flattery can be abused, all flattery is suspicious, but that is not flattery's fault. It is a skill, a tool, no more nor less than speech is a tool; it can build or break. - Willis Goth Regier

Before you flatter a man so grossly to his face, you should consider whether or not your flattery is worth his having. - Smauel Johnson

Do not be afraid of the enemies who attack you. Be afraid of the friends who flatter you. - Unknown

Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver. - Edmund Burke

Flattery is a sort of bad money to which our vanity gives currency. - Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Flattery is counterfeit money which, but for vanity, would have no circulation. - Duc de La Rochefoucauld

Flattery is counterfeit, and like counterfeit money, it will eventually get you into trouble if you pass it to someone else. - Dale Carnegie

Flattery is like cologne water, to be smelt of, not swallowed. - Bob Philips

Flattery is often a traffic of mutual meanness, where, although both parties intend deception, neither are deceived; since words that cost little are exchanged for hopes that cost less. - Charles Caleb Colton

Flattery is praise insincerely given for an interested purpose. - Henry Ward Beecher

Flattery is refined deception – it is the froth of language – it is the alcohol of social intercourse – it is the prescription of the subtle – and the nectar of fools. - William Scott Downey

Flattery is something that makes everybody sick except those who swallow it. - Unknown

Flattery is sweet food to those who can swallow it. - Danish Proverb

Flattery succeeds best on minds previously occupied by conceit. - Norman MacDonald

Flattery is telling a man what he thinks of himself. - Unknown

Flattery is the first step on the road to slander. He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander. - Napoleon Bonaparte

He that loves to be flattered is worthy o’ the flatterer. - Shakespeare

He who says he hates all kinds of flattery, and says so in earnest, has undoubtedly not as yet become acquainted with all kinds of it, whether in substance or in form. - Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Heart-stopping envy is the sincerest form of flattery. - Anna Godbersen

If we look at flattery from a purely utilitarian perspective – that is, from the philosophical point of view that anything that boosts happiness is good and anything that detracts from it is bad – flattery is a good. When it works properly, flattery makes the subject of the flattery a little happier and it makes the flatterer a little happier. And that is true even when the flatteree is wise to the flatterer. - Richard Stengel

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. - Charles Caleb Colton

In the best, the friendliest and simplest relations flattery or praise is necessary, just as grease is necessary to keep wheels turning. - Leo Tolstoy

It requires a great genius to flatter successfully a great personage. The common arts of adulation are thrown away upon the exalted. They are so accustomed to these that they take little notice. - Christian Nestell Bovee

Many know how to flatter, few know how to praise. - Wendell Phillips

More people are flattered into virtue than bullied out of vice. - Robert Surtees

Nothing is so great an instance of ill-manners as flattery. If you flatter all the company, you please none; if you flatter only one or two, you affront the rest. - Jonathan Swift

What really flatters a man is that you think him worth flattering. - George Bernard Shaw

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

Remember, man does not live on bread alone: sometimes he needs a little buttering up. - John C. Maxwell

So powerful is flattery, that men receive with pleasure the praises of many, whose opinion they would not take in anything but their own favour. - George Edmond Howard

Sweet words are like honey, a little may refresh, but too much gluts the stomach. - Anne Bradstreet

The distinction between praise and flattery is the distinction between good and evil. Praise is motivated by sincerity and flattery by deceit. - Tan Kheng Yeang

The heart has no avenue so open as that of flattery, which, like some enchantment, lays all its guards asleep. - Georges Edmond Howard

The lie that flatters I abhor the most. - William Cowper

The most certain way to check flattery in others is to appear insensible of it. - Norman MacDonald

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. - Napoleon Hill

'Tis 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. - Jonathan Swift

To ask advice is in nine cases out of ten to tout for flattery. - John Churton Collins

Unmerited compliments are the keenest reproaches. - Christian Nestell Bovee

We must suit the flattery to the mind and taste of the recipient. We do not put essences into hogsheads, or porter into phials. Delicate minds may be disgusted by compliments that would please a grosser intellect, as some fine ladies, who would be shocked at the idea of a dram, will not refuse a liqueur. Some indeed there are, who profess to despise all flattery, but even these are, nevertheless, to be flattered, by being told that they do despise it. - Charles Caleb Colton

Were there no fools, there would be no flatterers. - Norman MacDonald

Were we not accustomed to flatter ourselves, the flattery of others would seldom deceive us. - Norman MacDonald

When flattery is misplaced it is fatal to a flatterer. - Willis Goth Regier

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