Flattery is like cologne water, to be smelt of, not swallowed

Flattery is like cologne water, to be smelt of, not swallowed

Flattery was formerly a vice; it has now become the fashion.
[Lat., Pessimum genus inimicorum laudantes.]

Flattery was formerly a vice; it has now become the fashion.
[Lat., Pessimum genus inimicorum laudantes.]

What really flatters a man is that you think him worth flattering.

What really flatters a man is that you think him worth flattering.

Mine eyes
Were not in fault, for she was beautiful;
Mine ears, that heard her flattery; nor read more

Mine eyes
Were not in fault, for she was beautiful;
Mine ears, that heard her flattery; nor my heart,
That thought her like her seeming. It had been vicious
To have mistrusted her.

Nobody can describe a fool to the life, without much patient self-inspection.

Nobody can describe a fool to the life, without much patient self-inspection.

Of praise a mere glutton, he swallow'd what came,
And the puff a dunce, he mistook it for fame;
read more

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.

O that men's ears should be
To counsel deaf but not to flattery!

O that men's ears should be
To counsel deaf but not to flattery!

Flattery is all right so long as you don't inhale.

Flattery is all right so long as you don't inhale.

It has been well said that "the arch-flatterer with whom all the
petty flatterers have intelligence is a man's read more

It has been well said that "the arch-flatterer with whom all the
petty flatterers have intelligence is a man's self."