Jactantia intempestiva.--Men that talk of their own benefits are not
believed to talk of them because they have done them; but to have
done them because they might talk of them. That which had been
great, if another had reported it of them, vanisheth, and is
nothing, if he that did it speak of it. For men, when they cannot
destroy the deed, will yet be glad to take advantage of the
boasting, and lessen it.
Adulatio.--I have seen that poverty makes me do unfit things; but
honest men should not do them; they should gain otherwise. Though a
man be hungry, he should not play the parasite. That hour wherein I
would repent me to be honest, there were ways enough open for me to
be rich. But flattery is a fine pick-lock of tender ears;
especially of those whom fortune hath borne high upon their wings,
that submit their dignity and authority to it, by a soothing of
themselves. For, indeed, men could never be taken in that abundance
with the springes of others' flattery, if they began not there; if
they did but remember how much more profitable the bitterness of
truth were, than all the honey distilling from a whorish voice,
which is not praise, but poison.
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