Fidelity.—­To God, thy country, and thy friend be true.—­Vaughan.

He who is faithful over a few things is a lord of cities.  It does not matter whether you preach in Westminster Abbey or teach a ragged class, so you be faithful.  The faithfulness is all.—­George MACDONALD.

His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles;
His love sincere, his thoughts immaculate;
His tears, pure messengers sent from his heart;
His heart as far from fraud as heaven from earth. 

          
                          —­Shakespeare.

Nothing is more noble, nothing more venerable than fidelity.  Faithfulness and truth are the most sacred excellences and endowments of the human mind.—­Cicero.

Give us a man, young or old, high or low, on whom we know we can thoroughly depend, who will stand firm when others fail; the friend faithful and true, the adviser honest and fearless, the adversary just and chivalrous,—­in such a one there is a fragment of the Rock of Ages.—­Dean Stanley.

Flattery.—­Those are generally good at flattering who are good for nothing else.—­South.

If any man flatters me, I’ll flatter him again, though he were my best friend.—­Franklin.

No flatt’ry, boy! an honest man can’t live by’t;
It is a little sneaking art, which knaves
Use to cajole and soften fools withal. 
If thou hast flatt’ry in thy nature, out with’t;
Or send it to a court, for there ’twill thrive. 

          
                          —­Otway.

A man who flatters a woman hopes either to find her a fool or to make her one.—­Richardson.

Flatterers are the worst kind of enemies.—­Tacitus.

It is better to fall among crows than flatterers; for those devour the dead only, these the living.—­Antisthenes.

Nothing is so great an instance of ill-manners as flattery.—­Swift.

Men find it more easy to flatter than to praise.—­Jean Paul.

’Tis an old maxim in the schools,
That flattery’s the food of fools;
Yet now and then your men of wit
Will condescend to take a bit. 

          
                          —­Swift.

Ah! when the means are gone, that buy this praise,
The breath is gone whereof this praise is made. 
—­Shakespeare.

Flattery is false money, which would not be current were it not for our vanity.—­La ROCHEFOUCAULD.

Who flatters is of all mankind the lowest,
Save he who courts the flattery. 
—­Hannah more.

Meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips.—­Proverbs 20:19.

Men are like stone jugs,—­you may lug them where you like by the ears.  —­Dr. Johnson.

Commend a fool for his wit and a knave for his honesty, and they will receive you into their bosoms.—­Fielding.