self-flatteryn.

1574 A. Golding in tr. A. Marlorat Catholike Expos. Reuelation iii. f. 67 (margin) The selfe soothing or selfe flatterie of the Hypocrites.

1680 W. Allen Perswasive to Peace & Unity (ed. 2) 83 In danger of being betrayed into such a self-flattery.

1745 J. Mason Treat. Self-knowl. i. vii. 60 It is dangerous Self-Flattery to give soft and smoothing Names to Sins.

1842 H. E. Manning Serm. xiv. 191 It is only the vain self-flattery of the day to talk as if we had less need now of the daily service.

1882 Cent. Mag. Apr. 927/1 One of those people who..experience a delicious self-flattery in the celebration of the municipal grandeur.

1912 G. K. Chesterton Misc. of Men 60 If the dangerous comfort and self-flattery of modern England continues much longer there will be less democratic value in an English election than in a Roman saturnalia of slaves.

1986 Times 14 Jan. 14/3 The speech..included attacks on censorship, self-flattery and the persecution of the peasants under Stalin.

2001 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 20 Sept. 61/2 Given human appetite for collective (and individual) self-flattery, it is unlikely that competing versions of the past..will ever disappear.