Honore de Balzac – "Eugenie Grandet"

La flatterie n’emane jamais des gandes ames, elle est l’apanage des petits esprits, qui reusissent a se rapetisser encore pour mieux entrer dans la sphere vitale de la personne autour de laquelle ils gravitent.

William Shakespeare – "Julius Caesar" / Brutus

… for he loves to hear

That unicorns may be betrayed with trees,

And bears with glasses, elephants with holes,

Lions with toils, and men with flatterers;

But when I tell him he hates flatterers,

He says he does, being then most flattered.