... or to be duped.

I can’t abide flattery. I react very badly to it and see it for what it is. That bounder Caruthers was eulogising me the other day on the golf course. I had just hit a magnificent four iron shot to within an inch of the hole, which meant that after I holed it I would be seven under.

He went over the top in praising me… remarking on my incredible swing, but I knew that and did not need soft soaping.... I saw through it for what it was the truth. Anybody with an ounce of nous can see I have a swing to dream off… tell me something I don’t know.

I don’t care a rat’s arse for praise and wheedling… although I was somewhat mollified when he said that I was the best golfer in the club.

The problem is that when you are as good as I am no amount of flattery measures up. It is a tough life when ones abilities cannot be measured by one’s peers….he needs to brush on his adjectives.

He heaped praise on me and I shut him up after an hour… it was too much… I like to retain a degree of modesty.

TELL ME MORE

Better
Buttered
And basted
Blandished
And pasted
Sweetened
And slavered
Honeyed
And savored
Backed up
And built up
Than slighted
And chewed up.

Apocrypha of MTC

In other words we love to be courted, we love our importance, but we are not deceived by flattery? Who needs flattery from others then?

From Emerson's Essays, Gifts : " Men use to tell us that we love flattery even though we are not deceived by it, because it shows that we are of importance enough to be courted. Something like that pleasure, the flowers give us: what am I to whom these sweet hints are addressed? Fruits are acceptable gifts, because they are the flower of commodities, and admit of fantastic values being attached to them." End quote
He discussed the subject of gifts in a large sense --service and aid to others included-- and thus briefly crossed into flattery (it is sometimes an attribute of gifts, isn't it?)

Only once will flattery come up again and it is just as well : " It is a great happiness to get off without injury and heart-burning from one who has had the ill-luck to be served by you. It is a very onerous business, this of being served, and the debtor naturally wishes to give you a slap. A golden text for these gentlemen is that which I so admire in the Buddhist, who never thanks, and who says, "Do not flatter your benefactors." End quote
Indeed, benefactors and gift givers ought to know better! Their flattery will get them nowhere, least of all the return of it.
http://www.emersoncentral.com/gifts.htm