A New Way of Life

I once read a definition of flattery that may be worth repeating. Flattery is telling the other person precisely what he thinks about himself. King George V had a set of six maxims displayed on the walls of his study in Buckingham Palace. One of these maxims said, teach me neither to proper nor receive cheap praise. And that's all flattery is, cheap praise. If we stop thinking about ourselves for a while and begin to think of the other person's good points, we won't have to resort to flattery so cheap and false it can be spotted almost before it's out of the mouth.