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The holding of an unjustifiably high opinion of oneself or one's actions.
‘The self-flagellation about our failure to act against evil is at the same time a form of self-flattery.’
‘Here character, diction and motive come together, and all the preciousness and self-flattery drop away.’
‘It demands nothing of its audience and offers only a self-flattery that goes by the name of self-esteem.’
‘I do not say this as a gesture of misplaced self-flattery, since what I plan to do here is very modest indeed.’
‘I am tempted sometimes to say that the only point of conspicuous compassion is action, the rest is self-flattery.’
‘I like being compared to all good musicians but I dare say that is just because of self-flattery.’
‘Ultimately this is where my self-flattery points: my brain.’
‘Through a combination of cynicism and self-flattery, we put their accomplishments on a par with the banalities of contemporary celebrity culture.’
‘Still, some basic reporting can be done (and I think I can say without self-flattery or self-abnegation that I am not a conduit of choice for national-security leaking).’