This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
"Imitation is the sincerest flattery." - Nathaniel Cotton
"Be and continue poor, young man, while others around you grow rich by; fraud and disloyalty; be without place or power, while others beg their way upwards; bear the pain of disappointed hopes, while others gain their by; flattery; forego the gracious pressure of the hand, for which others cringe and crawl. Wrap yourself in your own virtue, and seek a friend and your daily bread. If you have, in such a course, grown gray; with unblenched honor, bless God and die." - Richard Heinzelmann
"Wealth is nothing in itself, it is not useful but when it departs from us; its value is found only in that which it can purchase, which, if we suppose it put to its best use by those that posses it, seems not much to deserve the desire or envy of a wise man. It is certain that, with regard to corporal enjoyment, money can neither open new avenues to pleasure, nor block up the passages to anguish. Disease and infirmity still continue to torture and enfeeble, perhaps exasperated by luxury, or promoted by softness. With respect to the mind, it has rarely been observed, that wealth contributes much to quicken the discernment, enlarge the capacity, or elevate the imagination; but may, by hiring flattery, or laying diligence asleep, confirm error, and harden stupidity." -
"Praise, flattery, exaggerated manners, and fine, high-sounding words were no part of Lakota politeness. Excessive manners were put down as insincere, and the constant talker was considered rude and thoughtless. Conversation was never begun at once, or in a hurried manner. No one was quick with a question, no matter how important, and no one was pressed for an answer. A pause giving time for thought was the truly courteous way of beginning and conducting a conversation." - Chief Luther Standing Bear
"The greater one's love for a person the less room for flattery. The proof of true love is to be unsparing in criticism." - Molière, pen name of Jean Baptiste Poquelin NULL
"Power admits no equal, and dismisses friendship for flattery." - Edward Moore
"Flattery is friendship diseased." - Philo, aka Philo of Alexandria, Philo Judaeus, Philo Judaeus of Alexandria, Yedidia, "Philon", and Philo the Jew NULL
"The only benefit of flattery is that by hearing what we are not, we may be instructed what we ought to be." - Jonathan Swift, pen names, M.B. Drapier, Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff
"He is the greater friend whose censure heals than he whose flattery anoints the head." - Saint Augustine, aka Augustine of Hippo, St. Austin, Bishop of Hippo NULL
"He whose ruling passion is the love of praise is a slave to everyone who has a tongue for flattery and calumny." - George Eliot, pen name of Mary Ann or Marian Evans
"Beware of flattery, ‘tis a weed which oft offends the very idol - vice, whose shrine it would perfume." - Elijah Fenton
"Wealth is nothing in itself; it is not useful but when it departs from us; its value is found only in that which it can purchase. As to corporeal enjoyment, money can neither open new avenues of pleasure, nor block up the passages of anguish. Disease and infirmity still continue to torture and enfeeble, perhaps exasperated by luxury, or promoted by softness. With respect to the mind, it has rarely been observed that wealth contributes much to quicken the discernment or elevate the imagination, but may, by hiring flattery, or laying diligence asleep, confirm error and harden stupidity." -
"Astronomy was born of superstition; eloquence of ambition, hatred, falsehood, and flattery; geometry of avarice; physics of an idle curiosity; and even moral philosophy of human pride. Thus the arts and sciences owe their birth to our vices." - Jean-Jacques Rousseau
"In solitude the mind gains strength, and learns to lean upon herself; in the world it seeks or accepts of a few treacherous supports - the feigned compassion of one, the flattery of a second, the civilities of a third, the friendship of a fourth - they all deceive and bring the mind back to retirement, reflection, and books." - Lawrence Sterne, alternatively Laurence Sterne
"For envy, to small minds, is flattery." - Edward Young
"Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery. Trust your hunches. They’re usually based on facts filed away just below the conscious level." - Joyce Brothers
"The mischief of flattery is not that it persuades any man that he is what he is not, but that it suppresses the influence of honest ambition, by raising an opinion that honor may be gained without the toil of merit." - Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson
"There is no other way of guarding one’s self against flattery than by letting men understand that they will not offend you by speaking the truth; but when everyone can tell you the truth, you lose their respect. A prudent prince must therefore take a third course, by choosing for his council wise men, and giving these alone full liberty to speak the truth to him, but only of those things that he asks and of nothing else; but he must ask them about everything and hear their opinion, and afterwards deliberate by himself in his own way." - Niccolò Machiavelli, formally Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
"Flattery’s fire is hidden. Its sweet taste is apparent, but the smoke is bound to come out at last." - Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL
"Imitation is the sincerest of flattery." - Charles Caleb Colton
"To worship at a temple not your own is mere flattery." - Confucius, aka Kong Qiu, Zhongni, K'ung Fu-tzu or Kong Fuzi NULL
"Flattery is from the teeth out. Sincere appreciation is from the heart out." - Dale Carnegie, originally spelled Dale Carnegey
"We are not fond of praising, and never praise any one except from interested motives. Praise is a clever, concealed, and delicate flattery, which gratifies in different ways the giver and the receiver. The one takes it as a recompense of his merit, and the other bestows it to display his equity and discernment." - François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt
"We sometimes think we hate flattery, when we only hate the manner in which we have been flattered." - François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt
"Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver; and adulation is not of more service to the people than to kings." - Edmund Burke
"Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver." - Edmund Burke
"Adulation is the death of virtue. Who flatters, is, of all mankind, the lowest, save he who courts flattery." - Hannah More
"To ask for advice is in nine cases out of ten to ask for flattery." - John Churton Collins
"It is no flattery to give a friend a due character; for commendation is as much the duty of a friend as reprehension." - Plutarch, named Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus after becoming Roman citizen NULL
"So very difficult a matter is it to trace and find out the truth of anything by history, when, on the one hand, those who afterwards write it find long periods of time intercepting their view, and, on the other hand, the contemporary records of any actions and lives, partly through envy and ill-will, partly through favor and flattery, pervert and distort truth." - Plutarch, named Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus after becoming Roman citizen NULL
"Many people cannot begin to feel the life-giving attraction for Divine Reality until they pass through the painful experiences associated with grasping at habitual enjoyment. This desperate grasping includes selfishly accumulating wealth, arrogantly cultivating power over others, and welcoming flattery, as well as enjoying absurdly refined comforts and ever more bizarre diversions. We must unequivocally see through this deceptive surface in order to enter the depth of ecstatic Divine Enjoyment." -
"Slander, in the strict meaning of the term, comes under the head of lying; but it is a kind of lying which, like its antithesis flattery, ought to be set apart for special censure." - Washington Gladden
"Faults a person who has low self-esteem may have are: sensitivity to criticism, over-response to flattery, hypercritical attitude, tendency towards blaming, tendency towards seclusiveness and shyness." - Zelig Pliskin
"Trust God completely and He will solve all your difficulties. Faithfully leave everything to Him and He will see to everything. Love God sincerely and He will reveal Himself to you. I am never silent. I speak eternally. The voice that is heard deep within the soul is My voice...the voice of inspiration, of intuition, of guidance. To those who are receptive to this voice, I speak. Everything is Mine except for Myself; Myself is for those who love Me. I am the Ancient One, The Highest of the High. Love Me; Love Me; Love Me; and you will find Me. This is Truth but intellect cannot grasp it, wisdom cannot weigh it, space cannot hold it, time cannot check it, angels cannot fathom it, but human beings can realize it through love, the Divine Love, the Love for the Almighty, except whom, nothing is. If you have rock-like faith in God and flame-like love for Him, nothing in this world will affect you. Misery will not trouble you, flattery will not touch you, happiness will not humour you. Such faith and love will cause you to rise above the imaginary phenomenon and make you understand that God alone is real. Trust God completely and He will solve all your difficulties. Faithfully leave everything to Him and He will see to everything. Love God sincerely and He will reveal Himself to you. This love needs no ceremonies and show. Your heart must love so that even your mind is not aware of it. Let nothing shake your faith in Me, and all your bindings will be shaken off. Once you open your wings to fly, you must fly straight like the swan. Do not flit from tree to tree like the sparrow, or many things will distract you." - Meher Baba, born Merwan Sheriar Irani
"Between flattery and admiration there often flows a river of contempt." - Minna Thomas Antrim
"There is no other way to guard yourself against flattery than by making men understand that telling you the truth will not offend you. " - Niccolò Machiavelli, formally Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
"Just as it is shameful to flatter when aiming to please, so it is a shameful when trying to avoid flattery to destroy the friendly thoughtfulness of another by immoderate speech." - Plutarch, named Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus after becoming Roman citizen NULL
"After a few years of marriage a man can look right at a woman without seeing her and a woman can see right through a man without looking at him." - Helen Rowland
"There are lovers content with longing. I’m not one of them." - Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL
"The life of a miser is a play of which we applaud only the closing scene." - Joseph Sanial-Dubay
"Keeping accounts, Sir, is of no use when a man is spending his own money, and has nobody to whom he is to account. You won't eat less beef today, because you have written down what it cost yesterday." - Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson
"Advertising: the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it." - Stephen Leacock, fully Stephen Butler Leacock
"The happiest of pillows is not that which love first presses! it is that which death has frowned on and passed over." - Walter Savage Landor