Clare Boothe Luce Quotes

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

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

Former CIA employee Joseph Weisberg's 'An Ordinary Spy' may attract attention for how much it redacts - whether by authorial choice or by CIA design - but its power comes from the growing frustration Weisberg's fictional alter ego feels at a system designed to betray seeming innocents in the most casual and cruel manner possible.

The reason that adulation is not displeasing is that, though untrue, it shows one to be of consequence enough, in one way or other, to induce people to lie.

Vanity finds in self-love so powerful an ally that it storms, as it were, by a coup de main,, the citadel of our heads, where, having blinded the two watchmen, it readily descends into the heart.

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

Madam, before you flatter a man so grossly to his face, you should consider whether or not your flattery is worth his having.

Like the juggler, deceiving by his tricks, one is deluded by egotism, falsehood and illusion.

He who has had, has been, but he who hasn't been, has been had.

When treating with liars, even an honest man must lie.

Instead of lowering your head and copping to it like a man, you pick up the journal as one might hold a bady's beshattered diaper, as one might pinch a recently benutted condom. You glance at the offending passages. Then you look at her and smile a smile your dissembling face will remember until the day you die. Baby, you say, baby, this is part of my novel. This is how you lose her.

[On writing:] The most egotistic of occupations, and the most gratifying while it lasts.

Those Women who boast the Affections of their Admirers, have a greater share of Vanity than Love.

Am I Machiavellian? I don't think I'm quite the mastermind people would have me be. Everything I do tends to be very successful and it may have something to do with the fact that I'm very good, not necessarily that I manipulate. But that doesn't often occur to people.

When all else fails, go for the ego.

Pope had been flattered till he thought himself one of the moving powers of the system of life. When he talked of laying down his pen, those who sat round him intreated and implored; and self-love did not suffer him to suspect that they went away and laughed.

A picture is an artificial work, outside nature. It calls for as much cunning as the commission of a crime.

A man never reaches that dizzy height of wisdom when he can no longer be led by the nose.

Flattery is a counterfeit money which, but for vanity, would have no circulation.

Lies are neither bad nor good. Like a fire they can either keep you warm or burn you to death, depending on how they're used.

Flattery is an ensnaring quality, and leaves a very dangerous impression. It swells a man's imagination, entertains his vanity, and drives him to a doting upon his own person.

If I told you, you might be forced to lie about it. Not that you aren't really good at it, but why put an old man in that position?

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

There are temptations more attractive than angels. Liberty, Patriotism, the good of humanity – words like that are the silver scales of the Tempter’s flaming wings

I like the idea of what happens when someone tells a small white lie - which I think is the premise of the show - and how it has ripple effects, so really it's also about raising the stakes of this little lie.