Daniel Handler Quotes

What valor cannot win, flattery may.

People can be induced to swallow anything, provided it is sufficiently seasoned with praise.

To be flattered is grateful, even when we know that our praises are not believed by those who pronounce them; for they prove, at least, our power, and show that our favour is valued, since it is purchased by the meanness of falsehood.

Men sometimes think they hate flattery, but they hate only the manner of flattering.

The ability to have our own way, and at the same time convince others they are having their own way, is a rare thing among men. Among women it is as common as eyebrows.

Flattery, the dangerous nurse of vice.

Flattery is praise insincerely given for an interested purpose.

It is undoubtedly true that some people mistake sycophancy for good nature, but it is equally true that many more mistake impertinence for sincerity.

Flattery was formerly a vice; it has now become the fashion.

A man who flatters a woman hopes either to find her a fool or to make her one.

Flattery labors under the odious charge of servility.

Flattery makes fools of the best of us.

Flattery is telling the other person precisely what he thinks about himself.

I think that if you can butter writers up enough, they might give you a little.

Sheer flattery got me into the theater. Flattery always works with me, particularly the flattery of women.

Although a skillful flatterer is a most delightful companion if you have him all to yourself, his taste becomes very doubtful when he takes to complimenting other people.

Charm is a way of getting the answer 'Yes' without asking a clear question.

In the time it takes to heat a TV dinner, Clinton had convinced me that he was the smartest person in the room and that I was the center of his attention. In the next 25 years, I would see countless others fall just as quickly to the Clinton Touch.

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

Baloney is flattery laid on so thick it cannot be true, and blarney is flattery so thin we love it.

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

Advertising - a judicious mixture of flattery and threats.

Flattery is a kind of bad money, to which our vanity gives us currency.

Part of my job is to try and seduce people. It's what I get paid for, and if people get in the way of me doing my job I can be very difficult.

Flattery was one of Kissinger's principal tools in winning over Nixon, and a tool he employed shamelessly.