"Every flatterer lives at the expense of him who listens to him"
About this Quote
Flattery is framed here as a kind of quiet pickpocketing: the cost isn’t paid in coins but in judgment. La Fontaine’s line has the clean snap of a moral, but its real bite is psychological. The flatterer isn’t merely a liar; he’s an entrepreneur of ego, selling you a version of yourself you already want to buy. The “expense” is what you hand over when you accept that deal: attention, trust, discernment, sometimes power itself.
As a 17th-century poet writing in the orbit of Louis XIV’s court, La Fontaine knew a world where compliments were currency and survival depended on reading the room. His fables often smuggle social critique past authority by dressing it up as timeless wisdom. Here, the target is not only the schemer but the willing mark. The subtext is almost merciless: you are complicit. If you “listen,” you’re not just being deceived; you’re participating in your own manipulation, because flattery works by bypassing reason through pleasure.
The sentence’s elegance reinforces its warning. “Every” makes it absolute, refusing the comforting idea of harmless praise. “Lives at the expense” gives the flatterer a parasitic metabolism, implying a sustained dependency, not a one-off con. In an age of patronage, it’s a reminder that admiration is rarely free; it usually comes with an invoice.
Read now, it lands as a blueprint for influencer culture and corporate yes-men alike: if someone’s feeding your vanity, ask what they’re feeding on.
As a 17th-century poet writing in the orbit of Louis XIV’s court, La Fontaine knew a world where compliments were currency and survival depended on reading the room. His fables often smuggle social critique past authority by dressing it up as timeless wisdom. Here, the target is not only the schemer but the willing mark. The subtext is almost merciless: you are complicit. If you “listen,” you’re not just being deceived; you’re participating in your own manipulation, because flattery works by bypassing reason through pleasure.
The sentence’s elegance reinforces its warning. “Every” makes it absolute, refusing the comforting idea of harmless praise. “Lives at the expense” gives the flatterer a parasitic metabolism, implying a sustained dependency, not a one-off con. In an age of patronage, it’s a reminder that admiration is rarely free; it usually comes with an invoice.
Read now, it lands as a blueprint for influencer culture and corporate yes-men alike: if someone’s feeding your vanity, ask what they’re feeding on.
Quote Details
| Topic | Fake Friends |
|---|---|
| Source | Jean de La Fontaine, Fables , contains the line (French) "Tout flatteur vit aux dépens de celui qui l'écoute" (Eng. "Every flatterer lives at the expense of him who listens to him"). |
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