If you can't love, learn how to flatter.

If you can't love, learn how to flatter.

No adulation; 'tis the death of virtue;
Who flatters, is of all mankind the lowest
Save he read more

No adulation; 'tis the death of virtue;
Who flatters, is of all mankind the lowest
Save he who courts the flattery.

It is easier and handier for men to flatter than to praise.
[Ger., Es ist dem Menschen leichter und read more

It is easier and handier for men to flatter than to praise.
[Ger., Es ist dem Menschen leichter und gelaufiger, zu
schmeicheln als zu loben.]

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

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

By flatterers besieged
And so obliging that he ne'er obliged.

By flatterers besieged
And so obliging that he ne'er obliged.

I can spot empty flattery and know exactly where I stand. In the end it's really only my own approval read more

I can spot empty flattery and know exactly where I stand. In the end it's really only my own approval or disapproval that means anything.

Music, even in situations of the greatest horror, should never be painful to the ear but should flatter and charm read more

Music, even in situations of the greatest horror, should never be painful to the ear but should flatter and charm it, and thereby always remain music.

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.

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.