In the face of such flattery, how could I resist?

Hoadly, being not unskilled in the art of flattery, was translated in 1721 to the see of Hereford, in 1723 to Salisbury and in 1734 to Winchester.

If the days were filled with flattery, the nights were filled with emptiness.

That the emperor had an honest and soldierly satisfaction in his own well-doing is clear; but if he had had anything like the vanity of a Domitian, the senate, ever eager to outrun a ruler's taste for flattery, would never have kept within such moderate bounds.

Judicious flattery secured him the consulship under Caligula (39); and under Nero he was superintendent of the water supply.