Quotes About Manners

a person who cannot control his words shows that he cannot control himself, and is unworthy of respect.

Courts are, unquestionably, the seats of politeness and good breeding; were they not so, they would be the seats of slaughter and desolation. Those who now smile upon and embrace, would affront and stab, each other, if manners did not interpose.... LORD CHESTERFIELD, 1694-1773

A community where everyone is a ruthless murderer, with handy access to death-dealing devices, is a very polite community.

Are you deaf as well as blind, woman? I'm not a carpet to walk over, and I distinctly heard myself speak. If I pinch your bottom, you can slap my face, but until I do, I expect a civil word for a civil word!

There were questions one asked, and questions one did not. That was strong custom. And friendship.

Small courtesies were the lubricant of daily life.

As my Lord says, my Lord's leg is not a side of beef. Thank you, my Lord, for instructing me.

only a complete woolhead looked at a woman while with another.

Being polite to a person is not a sign of respect for them, Pevara Sedai," Emarin said. "It is merely a sign of a good upbringing and a balanced nature.

Not surprisingly, Dickens was also something of a neat freak. He brushed his thinning hair hundreds of times a day, even whipping out a comb in the middle of a dinner party if he sensed a single strand out of place.

I can just imagine myself sitting down at the head of the table and pouring out the tea, said Anne, shutting her eyes ecstatically. And asking Diana if she takes sugar! I know she doesn't but of course I'll ask her just as if I didn't know.

Have you ever noticed that when people say it is their duty to tell you a certain thing you may prepare for something disagreeable? Why is it that they never seem to think it a duty to tell you the pleasant things they hear about you?

I could spank Constantine and skin him alive afterwards, that I could, she exclaimed bitterly. Oh, Susan, I'm surprised at you, said the doctor, pulling a long face. Have you no regard for the proprieties? Skin him alive by all means but omit the spanking.

it is easier to behave nicely when you have your good clothes on.

Mr. Harrison is an awful kind man. He's a real sociable man. I hope I'll be like him when I grow up. I mean BEHAVE like him…I don't want to LOOK like him.

Now, don't be looking I-told-you-so, Matthew. That's bad enough in a woman, but it isn't to be endured in a man.

I don't think it's any help that it's your habit. What would you think of a person who went about sticking pins and needles into people and saying, `Excuse me, you mustn't mind it. . .it's just a habit I've got.' You'd think he was crazy, wouldn't you?

She gives me meals that stick to my ribs. She don't forget to put salt in the porridge. She never slams doors, and when she has nothing to say, she don't talk. That's uncanny in a woman, you know, Mister.

She wanted all her boys to be gentlemen, she said.

What I had against Mr. Dawson, said Miss Cornelia, was the unmerciful length of his prayers at a funeral. It actually came to such a pass that people said they envied the corpse. He surpassed himself at Letty Grant's funeral. I saw her mother was on the point of fainting so I gave him a good poke in the back with my umbrella and told him he'd prayed long enough.

You better introduce yourself before you start talking Latin.

You should marry me, he said. I will be good to you. I am not like these men. I have manners. You would see how kind I would be. I would never leave you. You could have an easy life.

Everyone who came to see him asked questions that were either stupid or impertinent. Better to see no one than to see fools.

also many of them were, to Augustus's way of thinking, excessively pious. Some kept no liquor in their houses at all, and, on several occasions when he had been invited in for a meal, the grace was said at such length that he had all but lost his appetite before anyone was allowed to eat.