Quotes About Etiquette

The next day Mrs Honeyfoot told her husband that John Segundus was exactly what a gentleman should be, but she feared he would never profit by it for it was not the fashion to be modest and quiet and kind-hearted.

Gentlemen are often invited to stay in other people's houses. Rooms hardly ever are.

In familiar surroundings our manners are cheerful and easy, but only transport us to places where we know no one and no one knows us, and Lord! how uncomfortable we become!

Sometimes you my graciously permit all the most beautiful ladies in the land to wait in line to kiss your hands and fall in love with you.

Mr. Lascelles whispered to Mr. Drawlight that he had not realized before that doing kind actions would lead to his being addressed in familiar terms by so many low people - it was most unpleasant - he would take care to do no more.

In my time first cousins did not meet like strangers. But we are learning modesty from the Americans, and old English ways are too gross for us.

The forms of manners which should be scrupulously observed are, invariably, those which contribute to the comfort, or dignity of others.

Any references to pregnancy or childbirth are coarse, and should be carefully side-stepped by the truly well-bred, as should intrusive comments on love-affairs.

One of the greatest victories you can gain over someone is to beat him at politeness.

I figured he was adhering to the adage that if you don't have anything nice to say, don't make fun of the person paying the mortgage.

Still, the first rule of cohabitation is Thou Shalt Not Diss the Other Dude's Kinfolk.

Someone in Dr. Morse's childhood must've told him that the polite thing to do to get by in the world (in his world) was to memorize one fact and one fact only about each of your colleague's family members, so that when you met that colleague, or met their family members, you could, by mentioning this fact, appear solicitous and engaged.

A bevy of lovely ladies was in attendance, not one among them failing to make herself pleasant to Royce. He bore it all with good humor and occasional flashes of real interest in, Joanna noted, the bolder among them. A few drifted in Alex's direction but his obvious attentiveness to her seemed to discourage them. As it had damn well better.

You're going to burn in a very special level of hell. A level they reserve for child molesters and people who talk at the theater.

Les habían ofrecido tinticos y tecitos, esos diminutivos que los bogotanos usan para ser amables

No young woman of good breeding should show exclusive partiality to one partner all night.

And now over there is a gentleman who should not wear tight pantaloons. You will see when he turns around. There. That is why.

She only maintains that it is possible, under some circumstances, for a lady to murder her husband; but that a woman who wears ankle-strap shoes and smokes on the street corner, though she may be a joy to all who know her and have devoted her life to charity, could never qualify as a lady.

As dear Erasmus said in De Civilitate, "It is safe to admit nothing that might embarrass one if repeated." Gossip

Miss Manners' meager arsenal consists only of the withering look, the insistent and repeated request, the cold voice, the report up the chain of command and the tilted nose. They generally work.

One can become quite proficient at this amiable patter; the trick is to omit the instructive parts when attending formal dinner parties outside the house. It would be a mistake for Miss Manners to provide you with a list of no-no's. It may never have occurred to your children to laugh with a mouthful of soup, for instance, or to discharge unappreciated salad ingredients into the napkin. Here, instead, are a few yes-yes's: Small

However, if you accept the actual invitation, no other appointment—unless with a surgeon or an undertaker—can take precedence.

Making Others Feel Comfortable. Miss

As if etiquette weren't magnificently capable of being used to make others feel uncomfortable. All right. Miss Manners will give you an example, although you are spoiling her Queen Victoria mood: If you are rude to your ex-husband's new wife at your daughter's wedding, you will make her feel smug. Comfortable. If you are charming and polite, you will make her feel uncomfortable. Which do you want to do? On