Vices

"Ingratitude is monstrous; and for the multitude to be ingrateful, were to make a monster of the multitude."

"Blow, blow, thou winter wind, Thou art not so unkind As man's ingratitude: Thy tooth is not so keen, Because thou art not seen, Although thy breath be rude."

"[...] But to tell the truth, I'm still of two minds as to whether I should publish the book or not. For men's tastes are so various, the tempers of some are so severe, their minds so ungrateful, their judgments so foolish, that there seems no point in publishing something, even if it's intended for their advantage, that they will receive only with contempt and ingratitude. Better simply to follow one's own natural inclinations, lead a merry, peaceful life, and ignore the vexing problems of publication. Most people know nothing of learning; many despise it. The clod rejects as too difficult what isn't cloddish. The pedant dismisses as mere trifling anything that isn't stuffed with obsolete words. Some readers approve only of ancient authors; most men like their own writing best of all. Here's a man so solemn he won't allow a shadow of levity; and there's one so insipid of taste that he can't endure the salt of a little wit. Some dullards dread satire as a man bitten by a hydrophobic dog dreads water; some are so changeable that they like one thing when they're seated and another when they're standing. Those people lounge around the taverns, and as they swill their ale pass judgment on the intelligence of writers. With complete assurance they condemn every author by his writings, just as they think best, plucking each one, as it were, by the beard. But they themselves remain safely under cover and, as the proverb has it, out of harm's way. No use trying to lay hold of them; they're shaved so close, there's not so much as a hair of an honest man to catch them by. Finally, some people are so ungrateful that even though they're delighted with a work, they don't like the author any better because of it. They are like rude, ungrateful guests who, after they have stuffed themselves with a splendid dinner, go off, carrying their full bellies homeward without a word of thanks to the host who invited them. A fine task, providing at your own expense a banquet for men of such finicky palates, such various tastes, and such rude, ungracious tempers!"

"A man is very apt to complain of the ingratitude of those who have risen far above him."

"People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them."

"Deserted, at his utmost need, By those his former bounty fed; On the bare earth exposed he lies, With not a friend to close his eyes."

"The one who is slow to anger has great discernment, but the impatient one displays his foolishness."

"I am on fire To hear this rich reprisal is so nigh And yet not ours."

"Whereas we tell the workers: You have to go through 15, 20, 50 years of civil wars and national struggles, not only in order to change conditions but also to change yourselves and make yourselves capable of political rule; you, on the contrary, say: "We must come to power immediately, or else we may as well go to sleep.""

"I wish, and I wish that the spring would go faster, Nor long summer bide so late; And I could grow on like the foxglove and aster, For some things are ill to wait."

"Impatient straight to flesh his virgin sword."

"One wonders whether a generation that demands instant satisfaction of all its needs and instant solution of the world’s problems will produce anything of lasting value. Such a generation, even when equipped with the most modern technology, will be essentially primitive - it will stand in awe of nature, and submit to the tutelage of medicine men."

"He that's ungrateful, has no guilt but one; All other crimes may pass for virtues in him."

"Ingratus unus miseris omnibus nocet."

"Ingratus est, qui beneficium accepisse se negat, quod accepit: ingratus est, qui dissimulat; ingratus, qui non reddit; ingratissimus omnium, qui oblitus est."

"Nihil amas, cum ingratum amas."

"That man may last, but never lives, Who much receives, but nothing gives; Whom none can love, whom none can thank, Creation's blot, creation's blank."

"Ingratitude's a weed of every clime, It thrives too fast at first, but fades in time."

"By God, I cannot flatter: I do defy The tongues of soothers; but a braver place In my heart's love, hath no man than yourself; Nay, task me to my word; approve me, lord."

"Why should the poor be flatter'd? No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp, And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee, Where thrift may follow fawning."

"Mine eyes Were not in fault, for she was beautiful; Mine ears, that heard her flattery; nor my heart, That thought her like her seeming; it had been vicious To have mistrusted her."

"How was Moses able to withstand Pharaoh when he had nothing but holiness to give him courage? ... A solitary prophet once censured a king for his unlawful acts, when the king had his whole army with him. ... These holy men achieved such things because they had resolved to live for the soul alone, turning away from the body and its wants. The fact of needing nothing made them superior to all men. They chose to forsake the body and to free themselves from life in the flesh, rather than to betray the cause of holiness and, because of their bodily needs, to flatter the wealthy. ...But, as for us, when we lack something, instead of struggling courageously against our difficulties, we come fawning to the rich, like puppies wagging their tails in the hope of being tossed a bare bone or some crumbs. To get what we want, we call them benefactors and protectors of Christians, attributing every virtue to them, even though they may be utterly wicked.We should not flatter, because of our needs, those who value highly the very things it is our vocation to despise."

"I would give worlds, could I believe One-half that is profess'd me; Affection! could I think it Thee, When Flattery has caress'd me."

"Imitation is the sincerest of flattery."

"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."

"She began to think too, that Sir Mulberry was not quite so agreeable a creature as she had at first supposed him; for, although a skilful flatterer is a most delightful companion if you can keep him all to yourself, his taste becomes very doubtful when he takes to complimenting other people."

"Pessimum genus inimicorum laudantes."

"Vitium fuit, nunc mos est, adsentatio."

"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 to take a bit."

"Es ist dem Menschen leichter und geläufiger, zu schmeicheln als zu loben."

"Their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue."

"By flatterers besieged And so obliging that he ne'er obliged."

"Qu se laudari gaudent verbis subdolis, Sera dant pœnas turpes pœnitentia."

"No adulation; 'tis the death of virtue; Who flatters, is of all mankind the lowest Save he who courts the flattery."

"On croit quelquefois haïr la flatterie; mais on ne hait que la manière de flatter."

". 'No quality will get a man more friends than a disposition to admire the qualities of others. I do not mean flattery, but a sincere admiration.' . 'Nay, Sir, flattery pleases very generally. In the first place, the flatterer may think what he says to be true: but, in the second place, whether he thinks so or not, he certainly thinks those whom he flatters of consequence enough to be flattered.'"

"Gallantry of mind consists in saying flattering things in an agreeable manner."

"Adulandi gens prudentissima laudat Sermonem indocti, faciem deformis amici."

"Of praise a mere glutton, he swallow'd what came, And the puff of a dunce, he mistook it for fame; Till his relish grown callous, almost to displease, Who pepper'd the highest was surest to please."

"Assentatio, vitiorum adjutrix, procul amoveatur."

"It has been well said that "the arch-flatterer with whom all the petty flatterers have intelligence is a man's self.""

"It is one of the great evils of servitude, that let the tyranny be ever so severe, 'tis always flattered; and the more severe 'tis, the more 'tis flattered. The oppressors of mankind are flattered beyond all others; because fear and servitude naturally produce, as well as have recourse to, flattery, as the best means of self-preservation; whereas liberty, having no occasion for it, scorns it."

"With your own heart confer; And dread even there to find a flatterer."

"Of folly, vice, disease, men proud we see; And, (stranger still,) of blockheads' flattery; Whose praise defames; as if a fool should mean, By spitting on your face, to make it clean."

"Take no repulse, whatever she doth say; For, "get you gone," she doth not mean, "away." Flatter and praise, commend, extol their graces; Though ne'er so black, say they have angels' faces. That man that hath a tongue, I say, is no man, If with his tongue he cannot win a woman."

"O, that men's ears should be To counsel deaf, but not to flattery!"

"They do abuse the king that flatter him: For flattery is the bellows blows up sin."

"But when I tell him he hates flatterers, He says he does, being then most flattered."

"What drink'st thou oft, instead of homage sweet, But poison'd flattery?"