Daily Inspiration Quote by Hank Ketcham

Flattery, in Hank Ketcham's hands, is a bright, sweet nuisance: pleasurable, faintly ridiculous, and potentially hazardous if you take it for nourishment. The line works because it borrows the logic of a parent warning a kid about gum - a household rule - and smuggles in an adult lesson about ego. That domestic metaphor is Ketcham's home turf. As the creator of Dennis the Menace, he specialized in the comic friction between what children want (sugar, attention, permission) and what adults know (limits, consequences, embarrassment). Here, the "kid" is any of us when praise hits the pleasure centers.

The intent is not puritanical. "Enjoy it" grants flattery its legitimate function as social candy: morale, charm, lubrication. Ketcham isn't condemning compliments; he's condemning credulity. "Don't swallow it" lands as the punchline and the warning label. Swallowing flattery means converting it into identity, letting someone else's performance of admiration become your private evidence of worth. Once ingested, it sits heavy: you start optimizing for more praise, mistaking applause for accuracy.

The subtext is a cultural one: mid-century America, advertising and personality culture rising, smiles getting a little too practiced. A cartoonist watches adults behave like children in nicer clothes, chasing gold stars. Ketcham's wit is gentle but unsparing: flattery is fine as a treat, disastrous as a diet.