Quotes About Manners

The well bred contradict other people. the wise contradict themselves.

Well, I can't eat muffins in an agitated manner. The butter would probably get on my cuffs. One should always eat muffins quite calmly. It is the only way to eat them.

With an evening coat and a white tie, as you told me once, anybody, even a stock-broker, can gain a reputation for being civilized.

Mary Farquhar, who always flirts with her own husband across the dinner-table. That is not very pleasant. Indeed, it is not even decent . . . and that sort of thing is enormously on the increase. The amount of women in London who flirt with their own husbands is perfectly scandalous. It looks so bad. It is simply washing one's clean linen in public...

Did you hear what I was playing, Lane? I didn't think it polite to listen, sir.

LADY BRACKNELL I had some crumpets with Lady Harbury, who seems to me to be living entirely for pleasure now. ALGERNON I hear her hair has turned quite gold from grief.

If one hears bad music, it is one's duty to drown it in conversation.

Oh! talk to every woman as if you loved her and to every man as if he bored you, and at the end of your first season you will have the reputation of possessing the most perfect social tact.

If a man is a gentleman, he knows quite enough, and if he is not a gentleman, whatever he knows is bad for him.

What is a sensitive person?" said the Cracker to the Roman Candle. "A person who, because he has corns himself, always treads on other people's toes," answered the Roman Candle in a low whisper; and the Cracker nearly exploded with laughter.

I never talk during music--at least, during good music. If one hears bad music, it is one's duty to drown it in conversation.

All crime is vulgar, just as all vulgarity is a crime

It is very vulgar to talk about one's business.

Lady Bracknell.  Good afternoon, dear Algernon, I hope you are behaving very well. Algernon.  I'm feeling very well, Aunt Augusta. Lady Bracknell.  That's not quite the same thing.  In fact the two things rarely go together. 

Do you smoke? Jack.  Well, yes, I must admit I smoke. Lady Bracknell.  I am glad to hear it.  A man should always have an occupation of some kind.  There are far too many idle men in London as it is. 

Have some bread and butter. The bread and butter is for Gwendolen. Gwendolen is devoted to bread and butter.

The St. James's

It feels instinctively that manners are of more importance than morals

Jack.  [In a very patronising manner.]  My dear fellow, the truth isn't quite the sort of thing one tells to a nice, sweet, refined girl.  What extraordinary ideas you have about the way to behave to a woman!

Do you smoke? Jack.  Well, yes, I must admit I smoke. Lady Bracknell.  I am glad to hear it.  A man should always have an occupation of some kind. 

My dear fellow, the way you flirt with Gwendolen is perfectly disgraceful. It is almost as disgraceful as the way Gwendolen flirts with you.

The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her, if she is pretty, and to some one else, if she is plain.

Society--civilized society, at least--is never very ready to believe anything to the detriment of those who are both rich and fascinating. It feels instinctively that manners are of more importance than morals, and, in its opinion, the highest respectability is of much less value than the possession of a good chef ... Even the cardinal virtues cannot atone for half-cold entrees...

My duty as a gentleman has never interfered with my pleasures in the smallest degree.