Quotes About Etiquette

For well-bred people do not, after all, care to read about the social gaffes of others.

Afrikaans is one of the world's best languages in which to curse; even when spoken politely, it can bruise innocent bystanders.

I must apologize for calling so late, said he, and I must further beg you to be so unconventional as to allow me to leave your house presently by scrambling over your back garden wall.

No violence, gentlemen — no violence, I beg of you! Consider the furniture!

My instincts are all against a woman being too frank and at her ease with me. It is no compliment to a man.

However, I guess your time is of value, and we did not meet to talk about the cut of my socks.

Shevraeth himself was there to bid us farewell--a courtesy I could have done without.

My Dear Countess: You say you would prefer discourse to gifts. I am yours to command.

She already told me that she doesn't have to be nice, so why do I? Because my mother raised me right? That's why wolves always win. Because the rest of us mind our manners and get devoured for our efforts.

Say Morg--you mind if I use the rest of your bath salts? There's only a little left.

Because Helen Clarke was ungraceful by nature, she managed to make the simple act of moving into a room and sitting down a complex ballet for three people; before Constance had quite finished speaking Helen Clarke jostled Mrs. Wright and sent Mrs. Wright sideways like a careening croquet ball off into the far corner of the room where she sat abruptly and clearly without intention upon a small and uncomfortable chair.

That's wrong, Mrs. Winning was thinking, you mustn't ever talk about whether people like you, that's bad taste.

She forced herself to sit up primly on the edge of the marble bench, repressing firmly the nausea she felt at its warm pressure, and she smoothed the black linen of her dress across her lap, and tucked in her hair, which had somehow come loose, and crossed her ankles decently, and took her black-edged handkerchief from her bosom and dried her eyes and wiped away the dampness and grime from her face. Now, she thought; I may go mad, but at least I look like a lady.

I dislike all the beginnings of conversations where people ask one another as subtly as possible how old they are, and what their names are, and how they are feeling these days.

Once, matches were made behind a child's back; you came home from shaking hands with your in-laws, you wished the bride or groom a mazel tov, and that was that.

Neurosis is no excuse for bad manners.

Your whole house smells of dog, says someone who comes to visit. I say I'll take care of it. Which I do by never inviting that person to visit again. • • •

I checked my make-up in the mirror. I don't wear a lot, but if you're dealing with people all day, you've got to look presentable.

said. 'To make someone lose face is unforgivable.' The

Ready-made phrases and the ritual of etiquette were unknown to him; his thoughtfulness was pure improvisation, and it resembled the little inventions affection inspires.

and every one desired to know of him only two things: Was this his first visit to England? and How long would he stay? And they didn't seem to care so very much about either. He wondered how many times he himself had asked foreign visitors to the Revelation plant--Britishers, Swedes, Germans, Frenchmen-- whether this was their first visit to America, and How long did they plan to stay?

Now of all the cosmic problems yet unsolved, not cancer nor the future of poverty are the flustering questions, but these twain: Which is worse, not to wear evening clothes at a party at which you find every one else dressed, or to come in evening clothes to a house where, it proves, they are never worn? And: Which is worse, not to tip when a tip has been expected; or to tip, when the tip is an insult?

So far as I can see, he brooded, travel consists in perpetually finding new things that you have to do if you're going to be respectable.

It is the German who is so uncourteous to his verbs