According to Hecaton in his Anecdotes, Antisthenes used to say it was better to fall in with crows than with flatterers; for you are devoured by the former when dead, but by the latter while you are alive.
Antisthenes (c. 445 - c. 365 BC) Greek Cynic philosopher
In Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book 6, sec. 4 [tr. Mensch (2018)]
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A pun, as korakas = crows and kolakas = flatterers.
Alt. trans.: "He used to say, as Hecaton tells us in his Apophthegms, "That it was better to fall among crows, than among flatterers; for that they only devour the dead, but the others devour the living." [tr. Yonge (1853)]
Quotations about:
flatterers
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Power multiplies flatterers, and flatterers multiply our delusions by hiding us from ourselves.
Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 2, § 25 (1822)
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