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.

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.

The public will believe anything, so long as it is not founded on truth.

I am one of those unhappy persons who inspire bores to the greatest flights of art.

Good taste is the worst vice ever invented.

Eccentricity is not, as dull people would have us believe, a form of madness. It is often a kind of innocent pride, and the man of genius and the aristocrat are frequently regarded as eccentrics because genius and aristocrat are entirely unafraid of and uninfluenced by the opinions and vagaries of the crowd.