Sweet is the voice of a sister in the season of sorrow.
Benjamin DisraeliRead
Everyone likes flattery; and when you come to Royalty you should lay it on with a trowel.
Interpretation
Flattery is often expected, especially among those in power, and should be given generously.
This quote by Benjamin Disraeli humorously underscores the idea that those in positions of authority, such as royalty, often appreciate and even expect excessive praise. It suggests that to navigate such relationships successfully, one should be prepared to indulge in such flattery, metaphorically using a 'trowel' to emphasize the need for generous application.
In practice
In a speech about leadership, one might quote Disraeli to illustrate how leaders often thrive on flattery.
Sweet is the voice of a sister in the season of sorrow.
But what minutes! Count them by sensation, and not by calendars, and each moment is a day.
Grief is the agony of an instant. The indulgence of grief the blunder of a life.
Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.
Yes, I am a Jew and when the ancestors of the right honorable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the temple of Solomon.
The practice of politics in the East may be defined by one word: dissimulation.
Nothing is so aggravating as calmness. There is something positively brutal about the good temper of most modern men.
I have no more pleasure in hearing a man attempting wit and failing, than in seeing a man trying to leap over a ditch and tumbling into it
Could be. Iβm a pretty dangerous dude when Iβm cornered.β βYeah,β said the voice from under the table, βyou go to pieces so fast people get hit by the shrapnel.
Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.
And that brings us to tonight's word: Truthiness. Now I'm sure some of the word-police, the 'wordanistas' over at Websters, are gonna say, 'Hey, that's not a word!' Well, anybody who knows me knows that I am no fan of dictionaries or reference books. They're elitist. Constantly telling us what is or isn't true, what did or didn't happen.
Calvin: I'm a genius. I can't believe how smart I am. ...I've got more brains than I know what to do with. Hobbes: So I've noticed.
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