Inspirational and Insightful Quotations #59 --- Flattery

Flattery is the smoke screen of deceit.

—W.A. MacKenzie, Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville, Fla., Jan. 4, 1923.

Flattery is the oil that lubricates the wheels of vanity.

—Nephi Jensen, Fits of Wits, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1934.

There is nothing quite so docile as vanity listening to flattery.

—Nephi Jensen, Fits of Wits, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1934.

Flattery would be without force but for our vanity.

—Henry F. Cope, Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Ill., Jan. 10, 1909.

They are most harmed by flattery who are most hungry for it.

—Henry F. Cope, Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Ill., Aug. 15, 1909.

Flattery that you don't swallow won't hurt you.

—Bert Moses, Lake Charles American Press, Lake Charles, La., March 14, 1942.

The more a man is flattered the more flattery he craves.

—Bert Moses, Lake Charles American Press, Lake Charles, La., April 21, 1945.

He who knows the worth of his own action is never deceived by flattery.

—Roy L. Smith, Tampa Morning Tribune, Tampa, Fla., Jan. 26, 1933.

He who believes flattery does not deserve to know the truth.

—Roy L. Smith, Tampa Morning Tribune, Tampa, Fla., Jan. 27, 1939.

Most men flatter themselves that they cannot be fooled by their fellow, but they are fooling themselves by supposing that they can fool others.

—Charles Stelzle, New York Observer, New York, N.Y., April 18, 1907.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery until it transgresses the copyright.

—Jack Warwick, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh, Pa., Nov. 30, 1936.

The average person never gets choked when it comes to swallowing flattery.

—Carey Williams, Beaumont Enterprise, Beaumont, Texas, Sept. 21, 1957.

Too many sweets is not good for a person, especially if it's in the form of flattery.

—Carey Williams, Beaumont Enterprise, Beaumont, Texas, May 25, 1958.

Flattery is very thin, but some know how to put it on thick.

—Carey Williams, Beaumont Enterprise, Beaumont, Texas, May 28, 1960.

Flattery is a sort of dime store perfume. It is not too bad and not too good. The word liberally means "caress with the flat of the hand." There is something artful in flattery. It is quite often sincere adulation. Flattery can be, and often is, cajolery to gratify the vanity of another. Flattery is usually meant to beguile. It is excessive or unmerited praise for a purpose. Nevertheless I would rather be with people who are saying kind things, even in a light and airy manner, than to be with people who are brutally frank all the time. Flattery is to a social group what make-up is to a woman. We may know it is artificial but we welcome it.

—Floyd Poe, Dallas Morning News, Dallas, Texas, July 30, 1952.

Flattery is like fermented liquor–some can stand a good deal of it, some very little. Flattery is a sort of "laughing gas." When administered in too great quantities it becomes poisonous gas, which because of its disastrous effects may well be called "tear gas."

—Dallas Morning News, Dallas, Texas, March 27, 1927.

Egotism is the evil one's favorite channel through which to reach and use man's other weaknesses. The reason is that men yield more quickly to flattery than to any other lie that is offered them. It makes more slippery the descents into the bottomless abyss of despair and hopelessness than any other slimy substance. Flattery is simply verbal "dope."

—Dallas Morning News, Dallas, Texas, March 17, 1929.

Gall and flattery are a formidable combination.

—Dallas Morning News, Dallas, Texas, June 23, 1905.

Flattery is a moral narcotic.

—Dallas Morning News, Dallas, Texas, Aug. 12, 1905.

Flattery is the current coin that cunning fakers pay to fool philosophers for ready cash.

—Amboy News, Amboy, Ill., April 19, 1907.

Flattery gives a failure the big head; a truly successful man, a headache.

—Chicago Heights Star, Chicago Heights, Ill., Oct. 3, 1965.

Flattery is rank praise.

—Galveston Daily News, Galveston, Texas, June 11, 1892.

Turn flattery wrong side out and you have slander.

—Great Falls Tribune, Great Falls, Mont., Oct. 4, 1936.

Flattery is the milk of human kindness turned into butter.

—Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, Philadelphia, Pa., December 1911.

Fools are the easiest prey of those who employ flattery.

—Maury Democrat, Columbia, Tenn., April 14, 1944.