C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917. | | Compliments |
| Compliments are only lies in court clothes. | 1 |
| Current among men |
| Like coin, the tinsel clink of compliment. |
Tennyson. | 2 |
A compliment is usually accompanied with a bow, as if to beg pardon for paying it. J. C. and A. W. Hare. | 3 |
Deference is the most complicate, the most indirect, and the most elegant of all compliments. Shenstone. | 4 |
He who sports compliments, unless he takes good aim, may miss his mark, and be wounded by the recoil of his own weapon. Haliburton. | 5 |
When two people compliment each other with the choice of anything, each of them generally gets that which he likes least. Pope. | 6 |
A woman * * * always feels herself complimented by love, though it may be from a man incapable of winning her heart, or perhaps even her esteem. Abel Stevens. | 7 |
| Banish all compliments but single truth, |
| From every tongue, and every shepherds heart, |
| Let them use still persuading, but no art. |
Beaumont and Fletcher. | 8 |
Though all compliments are lies, yet because they are known to be such, nobody depends on them, so there is no hurt in them; you return them in the same manner you receive them; yet it is best to make as few as one can. Lady Gethin. | 9 |
| Treachery oft lurks |
| In compliments. You have sent so many posts |
| Of undertakings, they outride performance; |
| And make me think your fair pretences aim |
| At some intended ill, which my prevention |
| Must strive to avert. |
Nabb. | 10 |
Compliments and flattery oftenest excite my contempt by the pretension they imply; for who is he that assumes to flatter me? To compliment often implies an assumption of superiority in the complimenter. It is, in fact, a subtle detraction. Thoreau. | 11 |
Compliments of congratulation are always kindly taken, and cost nothing but pen, ink and paper. I consider them as draughts upon good breeding, where the exchange is always greatly in favor of the drawer. Chesterfield. | 12 | |
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