Wit & Attitude Quote by Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

Flattery is usually sold as kindness, but Bulwer-Lytton treats it like currency: someone is always paying, and someone is always being bought. The first clause is a jab at vanity as self-sustaining delusion. The fool doesn’t need an audience; he supplies his own applause, insulating himself from reality and making correction impossible. It’s not just ignorance, it’s a closed feedback loop.

Then Bulwer-Lytton twists the knife. The “wise man” doesn’t flatter himself; he flatters the fool. That reversal is the quote’s darker intelligence. Wisdom here isn’t saintly truth-telling. It’s social navigation, even soft manipulation. The wise man recognizes a reliable lever in human behavior: most people defend their self-image more fiercely than their interests. Offer them a polished version of themselves and they’ll hand you access, agreement, votes.

That’s where Bulwer-Lytton’s political identity quietly matters. In a parliamentary culture built on patronage, status, and public performance, flattery isn’t peripheral; it’s infrastructure. The line reads like an aside from someone who has watched debates where principle is less persuasive than ego management. Its intent isn’t to celebrate cynicism so much as to name a rule of the room: the quickest route to influence often runs through someone else’s vanity.

The subtext is unsettling because it implicates everyone. If the wise man’s advantage depends on flattering fools, then “wisdom” can slide into complicity. The quote doubles as warning: the moment you crave flattery, you become governable by it.