Quotes About Formality

No race on earth is as clever at being strangers as the British. They wrap themselves in formality, they withdraw behind veil after veil of exquisite politeness, they hide cunningly behind a bewildering array of carefully chosen façades—

It is a general rule to err on the side of formality rather than of intimacy.

Lady" is not used before the lady's first name unless she is the daughter of a duke, marquess or earl; those who come by the title through marriage use it before the husband's name. Fortunately

How do you do?" depending on the formality of the occasion, and whether you can count on the other person to understand that the answer to "How do you do?" is "How do you do?" even though that makes two questions in a row. (Etiquette opposes any declaration of being pleased to meet someone on the cynical grounds that it may not turn out to be a pleasure.) The

Americans used to pity and be amused at countries where the citizens all wore drab work clothes and the leaders were belligerently under-dressed for state occasions; now those people have discovered fashion, and we wear drab work clothes and are suspicious of formality.

Yes, indeed. "Good morning" is an opener, and "Good day" is a closer.

It is true that most of these men were closeted transgressors, while Colette played out her revolt in public. They were secretly attracted by her vital force. Their languor and formality were alien to her—but not their fetish worship of human beauty.

We've been through nothing, you ridiculous man, but I suppose you may call me Daphne nonetheless." "Excellent." He nodded in a condescending manner. "You may call me 'your grace.

Edmund..." "That's Mr. Bridgerton to you." "So formal?" "Only because it means I get to call you Mrs. Bridgerton." It was remarkable, how he could make her so ridiculously happy with a single sentence.

He wouldn't write a letter because he couldn't without beginning it 'Dear Sylvia' and ending it 'Yours sincerely' or 'truly' or 'affectionately.' He's that sort of precise imbecile. I tell you he's so formal he can't do without all the conventions there are and so truthful he can't use half of them.

It is terribly bad form to admit to being terrified for one's life, but nobody in their right mind would go to a Court banquet without making preparations. One must have the right costume, the right Faces, and at least eighty-two ways of avoiding assassination.

The salesman kept jabbering. Matt tuned him out, but Olivia gave the man her full attention. She asked a question or two, just out of formality, but the salesman knew that this one was not only hooked, lined, and sinkered but fried up and halfway down the gullet.

To my surprise, the more I searched about Qi Xiangfu, the more I found of a life lived partly online. He once wrote a short memoir in which he described himself in the third person, with the formality usually reserved for China's most famous writers.

You don't say hello to Mr. DeNiro? Show the respect, will ya?

In its heyday, the blazer had come to symbolise a kind of conventional decency. Yacht club commodores and school bursars wore blazers. People who played bowls wore blazers.

I believe in ceremony. I think ceremony is important, pomp and circumstance, tradition. I'm into those things.

Tradition in fashion is held with such a high regard.

There's a reason we have a lot of pomp and ceremony around coronations and the transfer of power in democracies. It's a scary moment. The rules aren't clear.

In poetry, I have, since very young, loved poetry in translation. The Chinese, the French, the Russians, Italians, Indians and early Celts: the formality of the translator's voice, their measured breath and anxiety moves me as it lingers over the original.

Das Studium ist nicht einmal Nebensache, es ist Formalität:

Truth and ceremony are two things.

And how shall you pay, gentlemen?" enquired Elric politely, still smiling.

I also found being called Sir rather silly.

In England, it's now Sir Ben. Mister has just disappeared. It's not even on my passport anymore. They've taken Mister away from me.