"Men who offer laudatory speeches to the rich ... are insidious because, although mere abundance is by itself quite enough to puff up the souls of its possessors, and to corrupt them, and to turn them aside from the way by which salvation can be reached, these men bring fresh delusion to the minds of the rich by exciting them with the pleasures that come from their immoderate praises, and by rendering them contemptuous of absolutely everything in the world except the wealth which is the cause of their being admired. In the words of the proverb, they carry fire to fire, when they shower pride upon pride, and heap on wealth, heavy by its own nature, the heavier burden of arrogance."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Clement of Alexandria, The Rich Man's Salvation (Loeb Classical Library, Volume 92), p. 271.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Flattery
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Flattery
32 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Flattery →
Related Quotes
"Where Young must torture his invention To flatter knaves, or lose his pension."
"'Tis an old maxim in the schools, That flattery's the food of fools; Yet now and then your men of wit Will condescend…"
". 'No quality will get a man more friends than a disposition to admire the qualities of others. I do not mean flatter…"
"She began to think too, that Sir Mulberry was not quite so agreeable a creature as she had at first supposed him; for…"
"Imitation is the sincerest of flattery."
"I would give worlds, could I believe One-half that is profess'd me; Affection! could I think it Thee, When Flattery h…"
"How was Moses able to withstand Pharaoh when he had nothing but holiness to give him courage? ... A solitary prophet …"
"Mine eyes Were not in fault, for she was beautiful; Mine ears, that heard her flattery; nor my heart, That thought he…"
"Why should the poor be flatter'd? No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp, And crook the pregnant hinges of the k…"
"Pessimum genus inimicorum laudantes."