Walter Raleigh Quotes

If we did not flatter ourselves, the flattery of others could never harm us.

men are so conceited they’ll believe anything that flatters them

None are more taken in by flattery than the proud, who wish to be the first and are not.

You don't want to be flattered and become big-headed by getting awards. But, well, I am.

The more people that praise you, the more there is danger to develop arrogance.

He that is much flattered soon learns to flatter himself.

We crave support in vanity, as we do in religion, and never forgive contradictions in that sphere.

The greatest human virtue bears no proportion to human vanity. We always think ourselves better than we are, and are generally desirous that others should think us still better than we think ourselves. To praise us for actions or dispositions which deserve praise is not to confer a benefit, but to pay a tribute. We have always pretensions to fame which, in our own hearts, we know to be disputable, and which we are desirous to strengthen by a new suffrage; we have always hopes which we suspect to be fallacious, and of which we eagerly snatch at every confirmation.

If we never flattered ourselves we should have but scant pleasure.

There is no such flatterer as is a man's self.

No wonder, Sir, that he is vain; a man who is perpetually flattered in every mode that can be conceived. So many bellows have blown the fire, that one wonders he is not by this time become a cinder.

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

There is scarcely any man, how much soever he may despise the character of a flatterer, but will condescend in the meanest manner to flatter himself.

Egotism is more like an offense, than a crime; though it is allowable to speak of yourself, provided nothing is advanced in favor; but I cannot help suspecting that those who abuse themselves are, in reality, angling for approbation.

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

There's a deceptive sin that can keep us from walking in love: pride. It's deceptive because when you have pride, you're usually too proud to admit it. I know this because I used to have teachings on pride and they didn't sell well.

Vanity can easily overtake wisdom. It usually overtakes common sense.

In general, pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes.

I have come to have the firm conviction that vanity is the basis of everything, and finally that what one calls conscience is only inner vanity.

There are two kinds of egotists: Those who admit it, and the rest of us.

Fondly we think we honor merit then, When we but praise ourselves in other men.

One may be humble out of pride.

Vanity is the quicksand of reason.

We are so vain that we even care for the opinion of those we don't care for.

I've been in things that have impressed people and they've come up to congratulate you but in a kind of, you-must-think-you're-really-special way.