Quotes About Etiquette

It is the effect of scarcity; one's rules of propriety make one thirst for the improper.

You have reminded me of how alien I found the concept of acquaintances splitting the bill when I first arrived in your country. I had been raised to favour mutual generosity over mathematical precision in such matters; given time both work equally well to even a score.

Would you like your money starched, sir? Box or hanger? Thanks for using GloboBank.

It is very unkind of you to feel this way. Any woman should properly yield, it seems to me, even a complete stranger, because that is the way of the world.... All I desire is solace from the flood of memories that overwhelms me.

He turns a page of his newspaper and folds it conveniently for reading, and reads it without looking at her again, settling further into his seat with the slight sigh of one whose visitor has left and who is at last alone.

El cursillo aconsejaba a la mujer trabajadora que quisiera mantener la compostura repetir dos veces al día las siguientes frases: La compostura es el equilibrio perfecto, una ecuanimidad del cuerpo y la mente, una serenidad perfecta en cualquier entorno social. Vestimenta elegante, limpieza inmaculada y modales perfectos contribuyen a lograr la seguridad en una misma.

Suddenly, just in time, I realised that he was a filthy Hun, so of course I turned my back on him and refused to shake hands. I think he noticed; anyway, I hope so. I hope he felt his position - General Murgatroyd

I was dreading the dinner because I knew that once I found myself in the dining-room seated (...), it would no longer be possible to remain a silent spectator, I should be obliged to try and think of things to say. It had been drummed into me all my life (...) that silence at meal times is anti-social. -'So long as you chatter, Fanny, it's of no consequence what you say (...)

Maurice Baring's

Horses sweat, you know, and men perspire, whereas ladies glow. I am sure I looked all of a glow also. Indeed, I could feel all-of-a-glow trickling down my sides beneath my corset, the steel ribs of which jabbed me under the arms most annoyingly.

I was reasonably sure that my one tried-and-true method of being aggressively rude wasn't actually how normal people made their friends.

Laurence felt his face going red; she was sitting there in breeches that showed every inch of her leg, with a shirt held closed only by a neckcloth; he shifted his gaze to the unalarming top of her head and managed to say, "Your servant, Miss Harcourt.

me. The tea was even offered exactly in the same way that Americans always did it, namely with the faint hint that they didn't really understand why I might like some tea, but they understood that this was the appropriate thing to do.

Araminta had generally considered the laws of etiquette as the rules of the chase, and divided them into categories: those which everyone broke, all the time; those which one could not break without being frowned at; and those which caused one to be quietly and permanently left out of every future invitation to the field.

The tea was even offered exactly in the same way that Americans always did it, namely with the faint hint that they didn't really understand why I might like some tea, but they understood that this was the appropriate thing to do.

Think on it with a clear head. Lords and kings often don't ask for what they want, but they can afford to have bad manners.

I don't know why Americans won't just talk about the weather like reasonable people

Relating personal problems to associates and customers. Your personal problems are important to you—and only you. Everyone has their share and they don't want to hear about yours.

Let's shake hands and be friends, but please, I beg you, stop farting like that, because I'm beginning to hallucinate and in my dreams I see Comrade Joseph Stalin doing the Charleston.

Almost everyone agrees with her. However much they look into her eyes and think she is uttering mere niceties, they are sworn to that ultimate courtesy, which is to believe what people want us to believe. And thus, when Mrs. Willow bids them good afternoon, they courteously rise to their feet. "Good afternoon," they smile back, shaking hands carefully, and postponing their slow, rhythmic applause and the smashing of the teacups.

There is really nothing more unattractive than the sight of a young woman displaying a repulsive amount of arm.

You don't have to get out. I know how to let myself in, she said. I'll get you at the door and walk you to it when I return you. It's part of my job, woman, he said. Her temper flared. Don't you ever call me woman. I'm not backwoods white trash. I have a name and don't you forget it.

At this moment Hannah returned with a large silver tray on which was a tea service and some dainty sandwiches. She set the tray on a table and asked Nancy to pour the tea. She herself passed the cups of tea and sandwiches to the callers.

Oh, this age! How tasteless and ill-bred it is.