Quotes About First Impressions

Your friends will know you better in the first moment you meet than your acquaintances will know you in a lifetime.

In the same way that I tend to make up my mind about people within thirty seconds of meeting them, I also make up my mind about whether a business proposal excites me within about thirty seconds of looking at it. I rely far more on gut instinct than researching huge amounts of statistics.

People have sex with strangers. People marry strangers. People spend half a century in bed together and wind up strangers at the end. Nicholas knows all this; he has cleaned house after his dead parents and grandparents, made all the terrible discoveries that only death affords. How long does it take to know anyone? Five minutes, and done. Nothing can move you off a first impression. That person in your life's passenger seat? Always a hitchhiker to be dropped off just down the road. p199

How long does it take to know anyone? Five minutes, and done. Nothing can move you off a first impression. That person in your life's passenger seat? Always a hitchhiker, to be dropped off just down the road.

I had never met a lord before, nor had I ever expected to meet one. It didn't matter what he looked like: he was a lord first, and a human being, with a face and limbs and body, long, long after.

Isn't it curious how, very occasionally, we have a strong and inexplicable feeling about a complete stranger? Most of the time, someone we don't know is just someone we don't know. Perhaps we form an impression of them on account of how they dress, speak, or move. We usually have no expectation, no feeling—good or bad—when we first encounter a new person.

As I was discovering, even the most powerful first impressions could mask a very different truth.

As soon as she'd met him at the arrivals gate on his return from Thailand, lithe and brown and shaven-headed, she knew that there was no chance of a relationship between them. Too much had happened to him, too little had happened to her.

I suppose the best way to understand it is that when I first see a person, I see the face. But when I first see a dog, I see the dog.

Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

functioned—I realized that first impressions about hotel rooms are like first loves: neither is based on the concept of how, over time, one can come to appreciate the pleasures of durability over infatuation.

and said so. Their initial impressions of each other were

I don't think I met anyone posh until I went to London.

When you meet someone, you meet their face. It's the most potent part of the body to embellish.

There's a certain amount of absurdity to the idea that having extremely crisp clothes is what's going to get you through the door. And there's a certain sad reality to it, too.

Look neat when you look for work, I always say—I do declare I won't hardly open the screen door to give a man a handout if he don't wear a necktie.

When the Spaniards first arrived in Mexico, natives bearing incense burners were assigned to accompany them wherever they went. The Spaniards thought it was a mark of divine honour. We know from native sources that they found the newcomers' smell unbearable.)

People rarely look the way you expect them to, even when you've seen pictures. The first thirty seconds in a person's presence are the most important. If you're having trouble perceiving and projecting, focus on projecting.

I meet a person, and in my mind I'm saying three minutes; I give you three minutes to show me the spark.

Clothes make the man

The first impressions I had from Ferrari was very heart-opening, welcoming me in a family which was always part of my family.

You know, I'm not sure I ever even had a blind date!

I have a theory that people tell you everything you need to know the first week you meet them. And often even on the first date.

Every debut is good, I would like to say. You can't necessarily have a bad debut, no matter how you play, results, whatever.