I am grateful for solitude. For me - for my personality, for my work week, for my interactions with people - some regular solitude is a necessity in my life. And if I don't get it I start to implode, and no I am NOT joking. I'm grateful that my husband recognizes my need for solitude and allows me to have it once a week. A friend shared this someecard with me today that pretty much sums it up perfectly.
There are two probable origins for this idiom and I think both are equally plausible. The first one is that when you spread butter on bread you are buttering it up like one would do when trying to flatter someone. The second is in ancient India there was a practice of throwing balls of butter at statues to ask for favor, i.e. buttering them up. ( source ) When we use the phrase today we generally mean that extreme flattery is used to gain information or favor. It's not always necessarily a compliment.
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