“In the best, the friendliest and simplest relations flattery or praise is necessary, just as grease is necessary to keep wheels turning.”

—  Leo Tolstoy , book War and Peace

Source: War and Peace

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "In the best, the friendliest and simplest relations flattery or praise is necessary, just as grease is necessary to kee…" by Leo Tolstoy?
Leo Tolstoy photo
Leo Tolstoy 456
Russian writer 1828–1910

Related quotes

Josh Billings photo

“The wheel that squeaks the loudest
Is the one that gets the grease.”

Josh Billings (1818–1885) American humorist

The Kicker

Gautama Buddha photo

“Just as the eldest son of a wheel-turning monarch properly keeps in motion the wheel of sovereignty set in motion by his father, so do you, Sāriputta, properly keep in motion the Wheel of Dhamma set in motion by me.”

Gautama Buddha (-563–-483 BC) philosopher, reformer and the founder of Buddhism

Vangisasamyutta, as translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi (2000), p. 287
Source: Pali Canon, Sutta Pitaka, Samyutta Nikaya (Connected Discourses)

Warren Ellis photo

“The single simplest reason why human space flight is necessary is this, stated as plainly as possible: keeping all your breeding pairs in one place is a retarded way to run a species.”

Warren Ellis (1968) English comics and fiction writer
Edie Brickell photo

“Wheels keep on turning and turning and turning
And nothing's disturbing the way they go around.”

Edie Brickell (1966) singer from the United States

"The Wheel"
Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars (1988)

“Above all, it is necessary to recognize that knowledge cannot be pumped into human beings the way grease is forced into a machine. The individual may learn; he is not taught.”

Douglas McGregor (1906–1964) American professor

Source: The Human Side of Enterprise (1960), p. 211 (p. 289 in 2006 edition)

George Gordon Byron photo

“This Praise, which would be unmeaning Flattery
If inscribed over human ashes,
Is but a just tribute to the Memory of
BOATSWAIN, a DOG”

George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement

Inscription on the monument of a Newfoundland dog http://readytogoebooks.com/LB-dog63.htm (1808).
Context: Near this spot
Are deposited the Remains of one
Who possessed Beauty without Vanity,
Strength without Insolence,
Courage without Ferocity,
And all the virtues of Man, without his Vices.
This Praise, which would be unmeaning Flattery
If inscribed over human ashes,
Is but a just tribute to the Memory of
BOATSWAIN, a DOG

Robert Jordan photo

“We can't go back, Mat. The Wheel has turned, for better or worse. And it will keep turning, as lights die and forests dim, storms call and skies break. Turn it will. The Wheel is not hope, and the Wheel does not care, the Wheel simply is. But so long as it turns, folk may hope, folk may care. For with light that fades, another will eventually grow, and each storm that rages must eventually die. As long as the Wheel turns. As long is it turns….”

Robert Jordan (1948–2007) American writer

Thom Merrilin, quoting an ancient song
(27 October 2009)

Zig Ziglar photo

“Motivation is the fuel, necessary to keep the human engine running.”

Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American motivational speaker
Ursula K. Le Guin photo

“She was not so naive as to think there was any necessary relation between religion and morality, or that if there was a relation it was likely to be a benevolent one.”

Ursula K. Le Guin Hainish Cycle

Source: Hainish Cycle, The Telling (2000), Ch. 4, §3 (p. 109)

Franz Kafka photo

“… it is not necessary to accept everything as true, one must only accept it as necessary.' 'A melancholy conclusion,' said K. 'It turns lying into a universal principle. In the Cathedral”

Franz Kafka book The Trial

Variant: No," said the priest, "you don't need to accept everything as true, you only have to accept it as necessary." "Depressing view," said K. "The lie made into the rule of the world.
Source: The Trial (1920), Chapter 9

Related topics