Flattery

he that exceeds, if from no interested motive, is obsequious, if for his own advantage, a flatterer;

Shall we, indeed, despise wealth and dishonour the pleasures of the senses, but pursue flattery and fawning, and emulate the craft and cunning of Archilochus' fox?

And as they say the polyp takes its colour from the ground beneath it, so he will change his thought to suit the minds of those he is with.

Next, you must consider that it is not the speaker who places upon you little or no burden who is in the right, for you see that, as a consequence of such optimistic speeches, our present condition has reached the limit of wretchedness, but rather the speaker who, putting aside the thought of pleasing you, shall tell you what ought to be done and by what means we may cease bringing disgrace upon o …

I observe, men of Athens, that there is no mistaking what kind of speeches you would like to hear and to what kind you are averse.

not because you will fail to understand what a person will say but because you seem to me to have become so accustomed to hearing many untruths and anything rather than what best meets your needs, that I fear it may be the lot of the man who now makes the best proposal to earn for his reward at your hands the hostility which would properly have been the due of those who have deceived you.

And that saying uttered by one of the ancient orators, which seems to have a certain excess of flattery — "I might fittingly carry the people about in my eyes" — I might justly say to you.

envy, smallness of soul, and — the last of all — servility.

for both, if trusted, injure those who trust them.

for the great majority of people do not come in contact with them, and those who are of their society consort with them to gain their favor.

Regard as your most faithful friends, not those who praise everything you say or do, but those who criticize your mistakes.

How like to friendship is flattery!