Daily Inspiration Quote by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare lands the insult with the elegance of a proverb: if you crave flattery, you deserve the person feeding it to you. The line’s sting comes from how it flips the usual moral hierarchy. We tend to treat the flatterer as the obvious villain - oily, manipulative, cheap. Shakespeare redirects blame to the audience for the performance. Wanting praise on tap isn’t just a weakness; it’s complicity, a kind of moral consent to being lied to.

The subtext is social and theatrical at once. Flattery is a script, and the flattered person is auditioning for it, rewarding the actor who tells them what they already want to hear. That’s why the phrase “worthy o’” matters: it’s mock-chivalric language applied to a sordid exchange. You don’t merely attract flatterers; you merit them, as if vanity is a credential and deception its proper companion.

In Shakespeare’s world of courts, patrons, and fragile reputations, flattery isn’t background noise; it’s currency. Survival often depends on pleasing the powerful, which makes sincerity dangerous and praise strategic. The line reads like a bleak field guide to influence: power invites performance, and insecurity sets the stage. It also doubles as a jab at self-deception. The flatterer supplies the lie, but the listener supplies the demand. Shakespeare’s intent isn’t to preach humility so much as to expose how easily ego turns a person into their own mark.