I can spot empty flattery and know exactly where I stand. In the end it's really only my own approval or disapproval that means anything.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I hate careless flattery, the kind that exhausts you in your efforts to believe it.
The aim of flattery is to soothe and encourage us by assuring us of the truth of an opinion we have already formed about ourselves.
Nothing is so great an example of bad manners as flattery. If you flatter all the company, you please none; If you flatter only one or two, you offend the rest.
Between flattery and admiration there often flows a river of contempt.
I'm flattered by the fact that most people tell me they don't know what my politics are.
What I have known with respect to myself, has tended much to lessen both my admiration, and my contempt, of others.
They might object to some of my opinions, but they don't object to my behavior as a judge.
We don't know where our first impressions come from or precisely what they mean, so we don't always appreciate their fragility.
I am very outspoken, obviously, and I should say that I can't judge anyone for doing anything.
Flattery and insults raise the same question: What do you want?