Philip Johnson Quotes

The art of pleasing is the art of deception.

It is happy for you that you possess the talent of flattering with delicacy. May I ask whether these pleasing attentions proceed from the impulse of the moment, or are they the result of previous study?

I'm impervious to charm. I can see through it.

Flattery'll get you anywhere.

Flattery and deceit are the darlings of great men, and so with these men spread the butter on thick, if you want to get something out of them, otherwise you'll come home to me with a full belly and an empty purse.

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

He who says he hates every kind of flattery, and says it in earnest, certainly does not yet know every kind of flattery.

Knavery and flattery are blood relations.

Eloquence, n. The art of orally persuading fools that white is the color that it appears to be. It includes the gift of making any color appear white.

With a soft tongue you can even pull a snake out of its nest.

If a politician, during a campaign, finds it necessary to resort to flattery, he should spread it on, not in thin layers, but with a trowel, or better yet, a shovel.

Hypocrisy and rhetorical flimflam are standard in politics …

God and my dad gave me the gift of gab. I know how to finagle.

Enjoy your dear wit and gay rhetoric, That hath so well been taught her dazzling fence.

I'm not honest, but you're interesting!

For they are yet ear-kissing arguments.

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

Take eloquence and wring its neck.

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

Men of great conversational powers almost universally practise a sort of lively sophistry and exaggeration which deceives for the moment both themselves and their auditors.

Love fattens on smooth words.

Speech is power: speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel. It is to bring another out of his bad sense into your good sense.

What have I eaten? Lies and smiles.

The speeches to be wary of are those that begin with I'm just going to say a few words.

Revile those who flatter you.