1.
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.
Louis XVI of France
We must differentiate between adulation and commendation; they are disparate. Trajan was motivated to righteousness by Pliny's laudatory speech; Tiberius became entrenched in wickedness from the sycophancy of his legislators.
2.
Imitation is the surest form of flattery and failure. I am not interested with your talk about my ideas. I am more interested in your applying them to your life. If you do not, then you are essentially not in accord with your own mind.
Miyamoto Musashi
5.
There is no other way to guard yourself against flattery than by making men understand that telling you the truth will not offend you.
Niccolo Machiavelli
6.
I have already settled it for myself so flattery and criticism go down the same drain and I am quite free.
Georgia O'Keeffe
8.
Immigration is the sincerest form of flattery.
Jack Paar
9.
Avoid flatterers, for they are thieves in disguise.
William Penn
11.
Imitation is not just the sincerest form of flattery - it's the sincerest form of learning.
George Bernard Shaw
12.
Sarcasm is the lowest form of humor but the highest form of flattery.
Benjamin Franklin
13.
But it is hard to know them from friends, they are so obsequious and full of protestations; for a wolf resembles a dog, so doth a flatterer a friend.
Walter Raleigh
14.
Flattery is telling the other person precisely what he thinks about himself.
Dale Carnegie
15.
Among all the diseases of the mind there is not one more epidemical or more pernicious than the love of flattery.
Richard Steele
16.
A flatterer never seems absurd: The flatter'd always takes his word.
Benjamin Franklin
17.
The most skillful flattery is to let a person talk on, and be a listener.
Joseph Addison
18.
Our domestic Napoleons, too many of them, give flattery, bonnets and bracelets to women, and everything else but - justice.
Fanny Fern
19.
Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver; and adulation is not of more service to the people than to kings.
Edmund Burke
21.
The aim of flattery is to soothe and encourage us by assuring us of the truth of an opinion we have already formed about ourselves.
Edith Sitwell
22.
One may define flattery as a base companionship which is most advantageous to the flatterer.
Theophrastus
24.
Flee flattery, false praise and fair weather friends
Fraser Young
25.
By flatterers besieged And so obliging that he ne'er obliged.
Alexander Pope
26.
No adulation; 'tis the death of virtue; Who flatters, is of all mankind the lowest Save he who courts the flattery.
Hannah More
28.
Of praise a mere glutton, he swallow'd what came, And the puff a dunce, he mistook it for fame; Till his relish grown callous, almost to displease, Who pepper'd the highest was surest to please.
Oliver Goldsmith
29.
Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver.
Edmund Burke
30.
Nothing is harder to resist than a bit of flattery.
Arnold Lobel
32.
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.
Dennis Franchione
33.
Though flattery blossoms like friendship, yet there is a vast difference in the fruit.
Socrates
34.
Of all wild beasts preserve me from a tyrant; and of all tame a flatterer.
Ben Jonson
35.
Imitation is flattery, and The Hills Have Eyes is a classic.
Michael Berryman
36.
He does me double wrong
That wounds me with the flatteries of his tongue.
William Shakespeare
37.
Flattery labors under the odious charge of servility.
Tacitus
38.
Because nothing says flattery like a gun to the head.
Jim Butcher
39.
Do not offer a compliment and ask a favor at the same time. A compliment that is charged for is not valuable.
Mark Twain
41.
Direct, forceful, energetic. Loves power, eats up publicity and flattery... Can turn on charm at will and knows it.
Joseph Stilwell
42.
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.
Dale Carnegie
43.
The habit of pleasing by flattery makes a language soft; the fear of offending by truth makes it circuitous and conventional.
Walter Savage Landor
44.
Flattery is like a painted armor; only for show.
Socrates
45.
Flattery will get you everywhere.
Mae West
46.
What drink'st thou oft, instead of homage sweet, But poisoned flattery?
William Shakespeare
49.
In the best, the friendliest and simplest relations flattery or praise is necessary, just as grease is necessary to keep wheels turning.
Leo Tolstoy
50.
Flattery of the verbal kind is gross. In short, applause is of too coarse a nature to be swallowed in the gross, though the extract or tincture be ever so agreeable.
William Shenstone