Quotes About Etiquette

You should never have to say hello or goodbye. Even at work sometimes, and I know this is very unpopular, is that if I'm going to work every single day, I don't think you should have to hug people hello every single day when you come to work. I saw you Monday!

If someone takes you out, and you're wearing sweatpants and a T-shirt, and they take you to a fancy place and you're unprepared, that's bad.

Gentlemen can now only behave as such, or be tolerated as such, in circumstances that are manifestly contrived or unreal.

I think there's something to be said for going to certain fine dining restaurants and knowing that after a certain time, it would be inappropriate to take young children. And, unrealistic for them and unfair to the child and to the others that are dining.

The unsaid rule for living in a trailer park is: 'If the door's shut, don't come a-knockin.' But if it's open and you're walkin' by, feel free to say, 'Hello.'

As an American married to an Englishman and living in France, I've spent much of my adult life trying to decode the rules of conversation in three countries. Paradoxically, these rules are almost always unspoken.

If you're making a social call, don't call past 8 P.M. The evening is a time when people need a respite from their work - a time to unwind, uninterrupted.

It's rude to not try and look up-to-date. Is rude the right word? Yes! It's rude - rude to other people.

I couldn't bring myself to call him by his first name, that wasn't my upbringing. So I suggested I call him 'Anandji.' He glared at me and said, 'Do I look like a schoolteacher to you?' The next day when I called him 'Dev Saab' he looked around as though he didn't know whom I was addressing.

That was my upbringing: you treat people with respect.

Business colleagues who have not seen each other for a long time but who have a good relationship can always shake hands warmly and grab each other's right upper arm or shoulder with their free left hand. Men and women executives should not kiss each other in public.

Among the upper classes, especially three or four generations ago, men and women had separate bedrooms. That's just the way it was.

Wearing a baseball cap or sleeveless shirt in a white-tablecloth restaurant is rude and makes other diners upset, just like someone on a cellphone.

Going to a party uninvited always has been a negative action. It never has been acceptable. At the very least, it upsets kitchen preparations, parking arrangements, and even details such as space for hanging coats and depositing dripping umbrellas.

At a music hall, I'll get upset if someone coughs or if someone's cellphone goes off.

When you hear extraneous noise, they are bored in some way, so it makes me upset. Even coughing, I find, is passive-aggressive, usually.

Obviously you do not want to upstage. Some people work like that. But I have never been that upstaging kind. I wouldn't want to upset anyone.

When people say you can and can't say things, I don't know who's the authority on it. As long as you're kind, as long as you're not upsetting anyone. But that's a natural thing, isn't it? I would never do anything if I thought it was going to upset anyone.

There is no upside to making a disparaging remark about a colleague. If your remark is accurate, everybody already knows it, so there's no need to point it out. If your remark is inaccurate, you're the one who ends up looking like a jerk.

I've never been one to throw clubs, break clubs, or use bad language on the golf course. I've played with golfers who've done that, and I really hate to see it. If I did something like that, my dad would come get the putter and hit me upside the head with it. I knew better.

The whole art of flirting has simply disappeared. This probably will do further damage. If we're going to become so uptight that we can't say nice things to each other, then we've had it!

The British tend to be uptight; they shy away from being tactile.

If a woman likes another woman she's cordial. If she doesn't like her she's very cordial.

Women do not find it difficult nowadays to behave like men but they often find it extremely difficult to behave like gentlemen.