Quotes About Etiquette

The great rule is not to talk about money with people who have much more or much less than you.

If you go to a party populated by the NPR crowd and you start talking about JonBenet Ramsey, people will look at you as if you had forgotten your pants.

Being a parent does not give you an excuse for bad manners.

When I was a kid, we called every teacher, every parent - anyone over the age of 20, it seemed - 'Mr. or Mrs. so-and-so.'

I had a pretty well-adjusted style of parenting. I think my parents were very young, very open. I think I learned many things from them: etiquette and grace, compassion and charity. And who I am today is due to a lot of attributes of my parents.

In California, of course, they never break up couples at dinner for fear of what might happen if someone's husband were seated next to someone else's very young girlfriend. But dinners with couples seated next to one another are always deadly dull, which is why there are almost no good dinner parties in the entire state of California.

Deep breaths are very helpful at shallow parties.

At dinner parties I sit below the salt now. There are a lot of interesting people there.

Never fight with or disrespect your partner in front of other people.

A president from a partner nation should not make comments on Italian politics.

I think it's sort of disrespectful to the partner you're having sex with to talk about it.

You should always leave the party 10 minutes before you actually do.

The day when a Frenchman switches from the formality of vous to the familiarity of tu is a day to be taken seriously. It is an unmistakable signal that he has decided - after weeks or months or sometimes years - that he likes you. It would be chulish and unfriendly of you not to return the compliment. And so, just when you are at last feeling comfortable with vous and all the plurals that go with it, you are thrust headlong in to the singular world of tu.

If anyone had appeared in just a pair of boxer shorts or swimming trunks, the womenfolk would have had "an attack of the vapors" and the menfolk would have exploded in a rage at the indecency of it. What exactly "an attack of the vapors" was is unclear, because there is no such thing as womenfolk anymore, and there is certainly no such thing as an attack of the vapors.

If ever a man and his wife, or a man and his mistress, who pass nights as well as days together, absolutely lay aside all good breeding, their intimacy will soon degenerate into a coarse familiarity, infallibly productive of contempt or disgust.

When Mathewson arrived in the majors, most first class and many second class hotels would not host big league teams for fear that the players' behavior would offend other guests. The hotels that did admit ballplayers often made them eat in a separate dining room. Players were well known for pinching waitresses and wrecking furniture, and if they didn't like the steaks they were served, they would nail them to the restaurant's walls.

Too evident sorrow does not inspire pity but repugnance, it is the sign of mental instability or of bad manners: it is morbid.

As a rule, children shouldn't whine in class, of course -- unless it's at the end of story time. Then it's okay.

I have a driving tip for you: Never hit the lead car in a funeral. I have never seen that many people in that bad a mood.

The Three Cs, I told myself. When you're not Comfortable with it, it's not a Compliment, it's Creepy.

As may be seen, there is only one sensible piece of advice to give to those who find themselves having to talk to an author about one of his books without having read it: praise it without going into detail. An author does not expect a summary or a rational analysis of his book and would even prefer you not to attempt such a thing. He expects only that, while maintaining the greatest possible degree of ambiguity, you will tell him you like what he wrote.

When someone comes to visit me, they have to bring tea - you can't stay in my house if you don't bring me tea.

I am always friendly with people. When media asks me for a picture or interview, I readily do it. However, I wouldn't like them clicking my picture when I am eating or when I visit a temple. I don't want to be big in front of God.

Canadians are hardly assertive or demanding. We don't expect U.S. presidents to bow down to our prime ministers when they visit us in Ottawa, nor are we looking for the occasional kickback on an F-16 deal.