Just praise is only a debt, but flattery is a present.

Just praise is only a debt, but flattery is a present.

Let us be thankful for the fools; but for them the rest of us could not succeed.

Let us be thankful for the fools; but for them the rest of us could not succeed.

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

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

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.

The skilful class of flatterers praise the discourse of an
ignorant friend and the face of a deformed one.
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The skilful class of flatterers praise the discourse of an
ignorant friend and the face of a deformed one.
[Lat., Adulandi gens prudentissima laudat
Sermonem indocti, faciem deformis amici.]

For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is
very wickedness; their throat is an open read more

For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is
very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter
with their tongue.

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

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

If he be so resolved,
I can o'ersway him; for he loves to hear
That unicorns may read more

If he be so resolved,
I can o'ersway him; for he loves to hear
That unicorns may be betrayed with trees
And bears with glasses, elephants with holes,
Lions with toils, and men with flatterers,
He says he does, being then most flattered.

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.]