Quotes About Etiquette

A dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than is a riot.

A man who understands decorum and the courtesies is a great treasure; I hope to train and send into society as many such men as I can.

Never argue. In society nothing must be; give only results. If any person differs from you, bow, and turn the conversation.

Having been engaged rather a lot of times, Zsa Zsa Gabor was asked whether a lady should give back the ring. Her answer? "Of course dahlink, but first, you take out all the diamonds.

Oh Tigger, where are your manners? I don't know, but I bet they're having more fun than I am.

The manners that apply specifically during courtship come to be replaced over the course of marriage by a different set of manners, embodying the residual pettiness, complaining, and faultfinding of childhood.

When a clandestine couple kisses, it is much more likely that sex will immediately follow. This is because there is much more risk. Once you have kissed secretly, it is very difficult not to have sex. It would be impolite not to have sex. You have to show that you are serious about each other.

What should the sleeping arrangements be in a ménage-à-trois? Is it polite to read while two people have sex beside you?

Uninvited guests are often most welcome when they leave

Only cowards insult dying majesty.

If, as Proust suggests, we are obliged to create our own language, it is because there are dimensions to ourselves absent from clichés, which require us to flout etiquette in order to convey with greater accuracy the distinctive timbre of our thought.

I saw someone peeing in Jermym Street the other day. I thought, is this the end of civilization as we know it? Or is it simply someone peeing in Jermyn Street?

The closest she got to pretence was politeness.

Etiquette may be bad, but embarassment is worse.

I think of literature', she wrote, 'as a vast country to the far borders of which I am journeying but cannot possibly reach. And I have started too late. I will never catch up.' Then (an unrelated thought): 'Etiquette may be bad but embarrassment is worse.

Etiquette may be bad but embarrassment is worse.

So what does that actually mean?" "To be honest, Ghastly, I haven't a bull's notion." "Elder Bespoke should be addressed by his title," Tipstaff said. "Of course," Skulduggery said. "To be honest, Your Highness, I haven't a bull's notion.

You just can't go around putting your hand through people's faces. It's rude for one thing. Deeply unsettling for another.

Well," Skulduggery said. "That was rude.

The first rule that a geisha is taught, at the age of nine, is to be charming to other women...Every girl in the world should have geisha training.

Unshined shoes are the end of civilization.

But the truth is, sometimes kids—and adults—seem to wait until their relatives are out of the room to go. It's like they don't want to distress them more than they have to.

One needs no particular talent to be polite. On the contrary, being nice is what's left when you've failed at everything else.

If ever you get invited into someone's home,' my father said (as he had been invited five or six times that morning), 'you go into the sitting-room and you say, "Oh, what an attractive room!" even if you think it's hideous.