Quotes About Manners

When the priest says 'Lord, have mercy upon us', you do not respond 'Well, actually, why should he?' You intone dutifully, 'Christ, have mercy upon us.' In the same way, it would be very rude to respond to 'Ooh, isn't it cold?' with 'No, actually, it's quite mild.

The reasons for our prolific understating are not hard to discover: our strict prohibitions on earnestness, gushing, emoting and boasting require almost constant use of understatement.

I think you're extremely rude! And you're doing it on purpose!" "Of course. One should never be rude except on purpose." …"Why?" …"Because one should never appear to anything without intent. It's the secret of poise.

I highly recommend cleanliness. It pleases women and annoys men, which are two excellent ways to get on in society.

Cynicism is intelectual dandyism, but graciousness in speech is an aphrodisiac. (Andy Spade)

Personal charm is a great help. You can sit there and be an awful ass, but if you have personal charm, you can really put it over on the general public

or with the nails, in the manner of dogs or cats, and not with a napkin, but with a toothpick of mastic wood, or with a feather, or with small bones taken from the drumsticks of cocks or hens." —Erasmus, "On Good Manners for Boys

It is just as easy to be polite as to be rude, and men are served better for love than for fear.

The Church should adapt itself to the manners of the time, since it seems only too clear that the manners of the time adapt themselves less and less to the Church.

The second man I meet is Andrew, and he has dirty fingernails so I can't notice if he is nice or not. I can even eat my brown sugar and butter crêpes because, oy gevalt , I'm so distracted by these fingernails. I mean, what was he doing before he came on this date? Competitive gardening? Burying the last woman he dated?

He found himself uttering a series of "excuse mes" that he did not mean. A truly magnificent thing about the way the brain was coded, Sam thought, was that it could say "Excuse me" while meaning "Screw you.

It is helpful to know the proper way to behave, so one can decide whether or not to be proper.

You know, he said, at some point you're going to realize that being a smart-ass isn't about being smart as it is about being an ass.

Remember, people who peek through keyholes have to expect an occasional poke in the eye.

So acts every 'man-in-the-street' in our own society, so has acted the average member of any society through the past ages, and so acts the present-day savage; and the lower his level of cultural development, the greater stickler he will be for good manners, propriety and form, and the more incomprehensive and odious to him will be the non-conforming point of view.

My grandmother Hattie Mae's home was a place where children were seen and not heard.

On humbleness. — To be humble to superiors is duty; to equals is courtesy; to inferiors is nobleness; and to all, safety!

Courteousness is consideration for others; politeness is the method used to deliver such considerations.

No one is more insufferable than he who lacks basic courtesy.

When you're twenty-two and you pass out at a friend's house, it's totally normal. When you do it at forty-two, you're never invited back.

Most of us are ready to greet our worst enemies like long-lost brothers if we think they can show us a good time, if we think they can do us any good or if we even reach the conclusion that being polite will get us just as far and help us live longer.

Manners are of more importance than laws. The law can touch us here and there, now and then. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation like that of the air we breathe in.

There ought to be system of manners in every nation which a well-formed mind would be disposed to relish. To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely.

Away, and bring us napkins!