f
the great, to foster their errors, and never to give advice which may
annoy.--_Moliere._

He does me double wrong that wounds me with the flatteries of his
tongue.--_Shakespeare._

Flattery is often a traffic of mutual meanness, where, although both
parties intend deception, neither are deceived, since words that cost
little are exchanged for hopes that cost less.--_Colton._

The most dangerous of all flattery is the inferiority of those about
us.--_Madame Swetchine._

Though flattery blossoms like friendship, yet there is a great
difference in the fruit.--_Socrates._

The coin that is most current among mankind is flattery; the only
benefit of which is that by hearing what we are not we may be instructed
what we ought to be.--_Swift._

Blinded as they are to their true character by self-love, every man is
his own first and chiefest flatterer, prepared, therefore, to welcome
the flatterer from the outside, who only comes confirming the verdict of
the flatterer within.--_Plutarch._

Flattery is an ensnaring quality, and leaves a very dangerous
impression. It swells a man's imagination, entertains his fancy, and
drives him to a doting upon his own person.--_Jeremy Collier._

Because all men are apt to flatter themselves, to entertain the addition
of other men's praises is most perilous.--_Sir W. Raleigh._

Out of the pulpit, I trust none can accuse me of too much plainness of
speech; but there, madame [Queen Mary], I am not my own master, but must
speak that which I am commanded by the King of kings, and dare not, on
my soul, flatter any one on the face of all the earth--_John Knox._

~Flowers.~--Luther always kept a flower in a glass on his writing-table;
and when he was waging his great public controversy with Eckius he kept
a flower in his hand. Lord Bacon has a beautiful passage about flowers.
As to Shakspeare, he is a perfect Alpine valley,--he is full of flowers;
they spring, and blossom, and wave in every cleft of his mind. Even
Milton, cold, serene, and stately as he is, breaks forth into exquisite
gushes of tenderness and fancy when he marshals the flowers.--_Mrs.
Stowe._

Flowers, leaves, fruit, are the air-woven children of
light.--_Moleschott._

Ye pretty daughters of the Earth and Sun.--_Sir Walter Raleigh._

I always think the flowers can see us and know what we are thinking
about.--_George Eliot._

What a desolate place would be a world without a flower! It would be a
face without a smi