Francois de La Rochefoucauld Quotes

Sometimes we think we dislike flattery, but it is only the way it is done that we dislike.

I get a lot of people coming up to me and saying, 'I really hate you.' And they say it in the nicest possible way, and I accept it. It's the people who come up to you and say, 'I really liked your character. Man, he was right!' Those are the ones you worry about.

I don't like compliments, and I don't see why a man should think he is pleasing a woman enormously when he says to her a whole heap of things that he doesn't mean.

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

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

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

Nothing is so great an instance of ill-manners as flattery.

Thank you, people who say 'Wow, you're really photogenic,' for not saying what you really mean: 'Wow, you're really ugly in person.'

Get thee glass eyes ;, And, like a scurvy politician, seem To see the things thou dost not.

Compliments are only lies in court clothes.

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

He who says he hates all kinds of flattery, and says so in earnest, has undoubtedly not as yet become acquainted with all kinds of it, whether in substance or in form.

We have a name for those who try to praise when they have no pleasure in the object. We call them hypocrites.

Revile those who flatter you.

Of all sorts of flattery, that which comes from a solemn character and stands before a sermon is the worst-complexioned. Such commendation is a satire upon the author, makes the text look mercenary, and disables the discourse from doing service.

Never permit yourself to indulge in cheap flattery, which often times means to merely satisfy the individuals vanity and sometimes to ingratiate the flatter into the good graces of the flattered.

Flattery makes fools of the best of us.

We sometimes imagine we hate flattery, but we only hate the way we are flattered.

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

To praise princes for virtues they do not possess is to insult them without fear of consequences.

When they call you a saint, it means basically that you are not to be taken seriously.

Flattery is counterfeit, and like counterfeit money, it will eventually get you into trouble if you pass it to someone else.

A woman doesn't want to be told she looks nice,' Jude nuttered as she sat down beside maud's grave. "She wants to be told she's beautiful, sexy. That she looks outrageous. It dosen't matter if its not true.' She sighed and laid the flowers against the headstone. 'Because for the moment, when the words are said and the words are heard, it's perfect truth.

There are two things which ought to teach us to think but meanly of human glory; the very best have had their calumniators, the very worst their panegyrists.

We bestow on others praise in which we do not believe, on condition that in return they bestow upon us praise in which we do.