Quotes About Tact

Many of us looking back through life would say that the kindest man we have ever known has been a medical man, or perhaps that surgeon whose fine tact, directed by deeply informed perception, has come to us in our need with a more sublime beneficence than that of miracle-workers

I'm a walkawayer. If someone brings me a really crap meal in a restaurant I will tell them it's wonderful and then just never go to the restaurant again. I think that's the best way to do it generally, rather than sit and fight and annoy your head. Just pretend to enjoy it and then leave.

The sexiest thing that a woman can do, wear, and say all fall under one word to me: subtlety. To be subtle in the things that she does and the things she says and the things she wears - I appreciate the details.

Avoid sarcasm. Don't insist on the last word.

I haven't much opinion of words. They're apt to set fire to a dry tongue, that's what I say.

Be sure your wisest words are those you do not say.

I think the firmness in one's stance can be conveyed in a different manner without being indecent or using harsh words.

I am not one who - who flamboyantly believes in throwing a lot of words around.

It is tact that is golden, not silence.

Treating your adversary with respect is striking soft in battle.

I want to tell you something but good taste Restrains me

Sometimes you've gotta hide the medicine in the food. You can't slap somebody in the face with facts, all the time. It's too harsh.

Adlai Stevenson has a genius for saying the right thing, at the right time, to the wrong people.

There are some virtues to not saying what you think all the time.

I am not going to spend any time whatsoever in attacking the Foreign Secretary. If we complain about the tune, there is no reason to attack the monkey when the organ grinder is present.

So she prayed, Lord, give me patience. She knew that was not an honest prayer, and she did not linger over it....it cost her tears to think that her situation might actually be that desolate, so she prayed again for patience, for tact, for understanding--for every virtue that might keep her safe from conflicts that would be sure to leave her wounded, every virtue that might at least help her to preserve an appearance of dignity, for heaven's sake.

He possessed the tact of becoming instantly intimate with women without giving rise to any fear of impertinence. He had about him somewhat of the propensities of a tame cat. It seemed quite natural that he should be petted, caressed, and treated with familiar good nature, and that in return he should purr, and be sleek and graceful, and above all never show his claws. Like other tame cats, however, he had his claws, and sometimes made them dangerous.

He did not tell Phineas, in so many words, that he was proposing to make an ass of himself.

No violence, gentlemen — no violence, I beg of you! Consider the furniture!

We also have our diplomatic secrets

Only a fool rushes to inform of bad news.

Life runs in a narrow path to balancing act, convincing tact, and satisfying fact.

Tact is that quality of grace that wins the confidence of people who are sure you won't do or say something stupid. You can't inspire a following if people have to hang their heads in embarrassment at the inappropriate and insensitive things you say or do. Tact is especially needed in a leader to help cope with embarrassing or tragic situations.

When you have nothing to say, one of your alternatives is to keep your trap shut.