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103. Flattery; Vanity
A gentleman attacked Garrick for being vain. Johnson:
"No wonder, Sir, that he is vain; a man who is perpetually
flattered in every mode that can be conceived. So many bellows
have blown the fire, that one wonders he is not by this time
become a cinder."
Boswell: Life
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152. Flattery; Socialization
"Solitude is the surest nurse of all prurient passions, and a
girl in the hurry of preparation, or tumult of gaiety, has
neither inclination nor leisure to let tender expressions soften
or sink into her heart. The ball, the show, are not the
dangerous places: no, 'tis the private friend, the kind
consoler, the companion of the easy vacant hour, whose compliance
with her opinions can flatter her vanity, and whose conversation
can sooth, without ever stretching her mind, that is the lover to
be feared: he who buzzes in her ear at court, or at the opera,
must be contented to buzz in vain."
Piozzi: Anecdotes
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166. Flattery
"What signifies protesting so against flattery (would he cry)!
when a person speaks well of one, it must either be true or
false, you know; if true, let us rejoice in his good opinion;
if he lies, it is a proof at least that he loves more to please
me, than to sit silent when he need say nothing."
Piozzi: Anecdotes
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167. Flattery
"You think I love flattery (says Dr. Johnson), and so I do; but
a little too much always disgusts me: that fellow Richardson, on
the contrary, could not be contented to sail quietly down the
stream of reputation, without longing to taste the froth from
every stroke of the oar."
Piozzi: Anecdotes
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824. Flattery; Retirement; Vanity
"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."
Johnson: Pope (Lives of the Poets)
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837. Flattery
"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."
Johnson: Rambler #75 (December 4, 1750)
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838. Flattery; Vanity
"But, perhaps, the flatterer is not often detected; for an
honest mind is not apt to suspect, and no one exerts the power of
discernment with much vigour when selflove favors the
deceit."
Johnson: Rambler #75 (December 4, 1750)
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1,002. Flattery; Truth
"In order that all men may be taught to speak truth, it is
necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it; for no
species of falsehood is more frequent than flattery, to which the
coward is betrayed by fear, the dependent by interest, and the
friend by tenderness: those who are neither servile nor timorous
are yet desirous to bestow pleasure; and, while unjust demands
of praise continue to be made, there will always be some whom
hope, fear, or kindness will dispose to pay them."
Johnson: Rambler #96 (February 16, 1751)
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1,077. Flattery; Toadies
"He that is too desirous to be loved will soon learn to flatter,
and, when he has exhausted all the variations of honest praise,
and can delight no longer in the civility of truth, he will
invent new topics of panegyric, and break out into raptures at
virtues and beauties conferred by himself."
Johnson: Rambler #104 (March 16, 1751)
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1,079. Flattery
"It is scarcely credible to what degree discernment may be
dazzled by the mist of pride, and wisdom infatuated by the
intoxication of flattery."
Johnson: Rambler #104 (March 16, 1751)
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1,083. Flattery
"It is necessary to the success of flattery, that it be
accommodated to particular circumstances or characters, and enter
the heart on the side where the passions stand ready to receive
it."
Johnson: Rambler #106 (March 23, 1751)
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1,267. Flattery
"Just praise is only a debt, but
flattery is a present. The acknowledgment of those virtues on
which conscience congratulates us is a tribute that we can at any
tine exact with confidence; but the celebration of those which we
only feign, or desire without any vigorous endeavours to attain
them, is received as a confession of sovereignty over regions
never conquered, as a favourable decision of disputable claims,
and is more welcome as more gratuitous."
Johnson: Rambler #155 (September 10, 1751)
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1,270. Ambition; Complacence;
Flattery
"The mischief of flattery is, not that it persuades any man that
he is what he is not, but that it suppresses the influence of
honest ambition, by raising an opinion that honour may be
gained without the toil of merit."
Johnson: Rambler #155 (September 10, 1751)
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1,318. Flattery; Old Age;
Respite
"The openness to flattery is the common disgrace of declining
life. When men feel weakness increasing on them they naturally
desire to rest from the struggles of contradiction, the fatigue
of reasoning, the anxiety of circumspection; when they are hourly
tormented by pains and diseases, they are unable to bear any new
disturbance, and consider all opposition as an addition to
misery, of which they feel already more than they can patiently
endure. Thus desirous of peace, and thus fearful of pain, the
old man seldom inquires after any other qualities in those
whom he caresses than quickness in conjecturing his desires,
activity in supplying his wants, dexterity in intercepting
complaints before they approach near enough to disturb him,
flexibility to his present humour, submission to hasty petulance,
and attention to wearisome narrations."
Johnson: Rambler #162 (October 5, 1751)
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1,369. Flattery
"Men who stand in the highest ranks of society seldom hear of
their faults; if by any accident an opprobrious clamour reaches
their ears, flattery is always at hand to pour in her opiates,
to quiet conviction and obtund remorse."
Johnson: Rambler #172 (November 9, 1751)
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1,443. Delusion; Flattery;
Vanity
"Few men survey themselves with so much severity as not to admit
prejudices in their own favour, which an artful flatterer may
gradually strengthen, till wishes for a particular qualification
are improved to hopes of attainment, and hopes of attainment to
belief of possession."
Johnson: Rambler #189 (January 7, 1752)
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