“Few human beings are proof against the implied flattery of rapt attention.”
“There is nothing in the world more difficult than candor, and nothing easier than flattery. If there is a hundredth of a fraction of a false note to candor, it immediately produces dissonance, and as a result, exposure. But in flattery, even if everything is false down to the last note, it is still pleasant, and people will listen not without pleasure; with coarse pleasure, perhaps, but pleasure nevertheless.”
“Nothing in this world is harder than speaking the truth, nothing easier than flattery.”
“Because nothing says flattery like a gun to the head.”
“Love of another is merely empty flattery and self-deception for one who cannot accept himself without pretense.”