QUOTES ABOUT POLITE MANNERS

Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others.  If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter which fork you use.  ~Emily Post

Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax.  ~Arthur Schopenhauer

To disagree, one doesn't have to be disagreeable.  ~Barry M. Goldwater and Jack Casserly, Goldwater

Good manners are just a way of showing other people that we have respect for them.  ~Bill Kelly


Politeness is the art of choosing among one's real thoughts.  ~Abel Stevens


Hospitality is making your guests feel at home, even if you wish they were.  ~Author Unknown

The test of good manners is to be patient with bad ones.  ~Gabirol (Solomon ben Yehuda ibn Gabirol), The Choice of Pearls


Learn young about hard work and manners - and you'll be through the whole dirty mess and nicely dead again before you know it.  ~F. Scott Fitzgerald


Whoever one is, and wherever one is, one is always in the wrong if one is rude.  ~Maurice Baring

I don't think you want too much sincerity in society.  It would be like an iron girder in a house of cards.  ~W. Somerset Maugham


Good manners are made up of petty sacrifices.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson


Good manners:  The noise you don't make when you're eating soup.  ~Bennett Cerf

A man that should call everything by its right name would hardly pass the streets without being knocked down as a common enemy.  ~Lord Halifax



There can be no defence like elaborate courtesy.  ~E.V. Lucas


Visitors should behave in such a way that the host and hostess feel at home.  ~J.S. Farynski

Outcomes rarely turn on grand gestures or the art of the deal, but on whether you've sent someone a thank-you note.  ~Bernie Brillstein, The Little Stuff Matters Most



Many who would not take the last cookie would take the last lifeboat.  ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960


 
People count up the faults of those who keep them waiting.  ~French Proverb

Politeness, n.  The most acceptable hypocrisy.  ~Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, 1911


Life be not so short but that there is always time for courtesy.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson


Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.  ~Eric Hoffer

Says the rude child:  "No, I won't do it."  Says the courteous grown-up:  "Yes, I won't do it."  ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960


Good manners can replace morals.  It may be years before anyone knows if what you are doing is right.  But if what you are doing is nice, it will be immediately evident.  ~P.J. O'Rourke


 
Courtesies cannot be borrowed like snow shovels; you must have some of your own.  ~John Wanamaker

Perfect behavior is born of complete indifference.  ~Cesare Pavese, This Business of Living: Diaries


 
Treat people as you would like to be treated.  Karma's only a bitch if you are.  ~Author Unknown


 
It's not a slam at you when people are rude - it's a slam at the people they've met before.  ~F. Scott Fitzgerald

Treat everyone with politeness, even those who are rude to you - not because they are nice, but because you are.  ~Author Unknown


 
Is man a savage at heart, skinned o'er with fragile Manners?  Or is savagery but a faint taint in the natural man's gentility, which erupts now and again like pimples on an angel's arse?  ~John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor, 1960


 

Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners.  ~Author Unknown

“The world was my oyster but I used the wrong fork.”  - Oscar Wilde

“Life is short, but there is always time enough for courtesy.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Respect for ourselves guides our morals; respect for others guides our manners” - Laurence Sterne

“Be pretty if you can, be witty if you must, but be gracious if it kills you.” - Elsie De Wolfe

“It is good to dress in fair clothes to dine with friends. It honors your host, if you are a guest; and your guest if you are a host. And both adorn the feast, and so celebrate the gifts of the world.” - Alison Croggon

“O, Times! O, Manners! It is my opinion
That you are changing sadly your dominion
I mean the reign of manners hath long ceased,
For men have none at all, or bad at least;
And as for times, altho' 'tis said by many
The "good old times" were far the worst of any,
Of which sound Doctrine I believe each tittle
Yet still I think these worst a little.

I've been a thinking -isn't that the phrase?-
I like your Yankee words and Yankee ways -
I've been a thinking, whether it were best
To Take things seriously, Or all in jest” 

Edgar Allan Poe - Poetry, Tales and Selected Essays

“A mans manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait.” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Charming villains have always had a decided social advantage over well-meaning people who chew with their mouths open. - Judith Martin

“Nobody believes that the man who says, 'Look, lady, you wanted equality,' to explain why he won't give up his seat to a pregnant woman carrying three grocery bags, a briefcase, and a toddler is seized with the symbolism of idealism.” -  Judith Martin, Common Courtesy: In Which Miss Manners Solves the Problem That Baffled Mr. Jefferson

“Nowadays, we never allow ourselves the convenience of being temporarily unavailable, even to strangers. With telephone and beeper, people subject themselves to being instantly accessible to everyone at all times, and it is the person who refuses to be on call, rather than the importunate caller, who is considered rude.” - Judith Martin, Common Courtesy: In Which Miss Manners Solves the Problem That Baffled Mr. Jefferson

Allow both passion and courtesy into your life in equal measure, and be complete.” - Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration
 

"Courtesy is a science of the highest importance. It is... opening a door that we may derive instruction from the example of others, and at the same time enabling us to benefit them by our example, if there be anything in our character worthy of imitation." - Michel De Montaigne

"Among well bred people a mutual deference is affected, contempt for others is disguised; authority concealed; attention given to each in his turn; and an easy stream of conversation maintained without vehemence, without interruption, without eagerness for victory, and without any airs of superiority." - David Hume






"No one is too big to be courteous, but some are too little." - Author Unknown

"Good manners have much to do with the emotions. To make them ring true, one must feel them, not merely exhibit them." - Amy Vanderbilt






"It's not a slam at you when people are rude - it's a slam at the people they've met before." - F. Scott Fitzgerald






"Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence." - George Washington

"Good manners can replace morals. It may be years before anyone knows if what you are doing is right. But if what you are doing is nice, it will be immediately evident." - P.J. O'Rourke






"Intelligence and courtesy not always are combined; Often in a wooden house a golden room we find." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow





"Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in the grateful and appreciating heart." - Henry Clay

"Never speak of a man in his own presence. It is always indelicate, and may be offensive." - Samuel Johnson





"Manners are the happy ways of doing things; each one a stroke of genius or of love, now repeated and hardened into usage, they form at last a rich varnish, with which the routine of life is washed, and its details adorned. If they are superficial, so are the dew-drops which give such a depth to the morning meadows." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The small courtesies sweeten life; the greater ennoble it."
- Christian Nestell Bovee

"All doors open to courtesy." - Thomas Fuller






"Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners." - Author Unknown

"Politeness is the art of choosing among one's real thoughts." - Abel Stevens





"There is no beautifier of complexion, or form, or behavior, like the wish to scatter joy and not pain around us. ‘Tis good to give a stranger a meal, or a night’s lodging. ‘Tis better to be hospitable to his good meaning and thought, and give courage to a companion. We must be as courteous to a man as we are to a picture, which we are willing to give the advantage of a good light." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"To speak kindly does not hurt the tongue." - Proverb

"A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love." - St. Basil

Good manners will open doors that the best education cannot. - Clarence Thomas

Good manners sometimes means simply putting up with other people's bad manners  - H.Jackson Brown Jr

Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. -  Leonardo da Vinci

You can get through life  with bad manners, but it's easier with good manners. - Lillian Gish

To be always thinking about your manners is not the way to make them good; the very perfection of manners is not to think about yourself - Richard Whately

Good manners have much to do with the emotions. To make them ring true, one must feel them, not merely exhibit them. - Amy Vanderbilt

photography by Tatiana