“Learn that every flatterer Lives at the flattered listeners cost.”

We ought never to scoff at the wretched, for who can be sure of continued happiness?

Let fools the studious despise, There’s nothing lost by being wise.

From a distance it is something; and nearby it is nothing.

Nothing is so dangerous as an ignorant friend; a wise enemy is worth more.

The finest victory is to conquer one’s own heart.

Every flatterer lives at the expense of him who listens to him.

A grand comedy in one hundred different acts, On the stage of the universe.

He knoweth the universe, and himself he knoweth not.

Better to rely on one powerful king than on many little princes.

Foxes are all tail, and women all tongue.

In everything we ought to look at the end.

The strongest passion is fear.

One returns to the place one came from.

It is twice the pleasure to deceive the deceiver.

By time and toil we sever What strength and rage could never.

The fastidious are unfortunate: nothing can satisfy them.

Of all wild beasts preserve me from a tyrant; and of all tame a flatterer.

If men of eminence are exposed to censure on one hand, they are as much liable to flattery on the other. If they receive reproaches which are not due to them, they likewise receive praises which they do not deserve.

The most skillful flattery is to let a person talk on, and be a listener.

Some folks pay a compliment like they went down in their pocket for it.

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

To a poet, silence is an acceptable response, even a flattering one.

The flattery of posterity is not worth much more than contemporary flattery, which is worth nothing.

I can spot empty flattery and know exactly where I stand. In the end it’s really only my own approval or disapproval that means anything.