Manners Quotes - Page 30

• He only shot one person," Nick remarked. "But the night is young." . . . Forgive him, he has no manners." I get by on good looks," Nick said.

  Sarah Rees Brennan

  Night, Forgiving, Looks

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• October— You were sleeping so peacefully that I was loath to wake you. Duke Torquill, after demanding to know what I was doing in your apartment, has requested that I inform you of his intent to visit after ‘tending to some business at the Queen’s Court.’ I recommend wearing something clinging, as that may distract him from whatever he wishes to lecture you about this time. Hopefully, it’s your manners. You are truly endearing when you sleep. I attribute this to the exotic nature of seeing you in a state of silence. —Tybalt

  Mira Grant

  Queens, Sleep, Silence

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• There was an air of indifference about them, a calm produced by the gratification of every passion; and through their manners were suave, one could sense beneath them that special brutality which comes from the habit of breaking down half-hearted resistances that keep one fit and tickle one’s vanity—the handling of blooded horses, the pursuit of loose women.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Horse, Passion, Vanity

  Gustave Flaubert (1993). “Madame Bovary: Patterns of Provincial Life”, Everyman's Library

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• I sat on the bed. Neither of us said anything. I wasn't slick and sophisticated enough for this. What do you say to boyfriend A when he finds you naked in the bed of boyfriend B? Especially if boyfriend A turned into a monster the night before and ate someone. I bet Miss Manners didn't cover this at all.

  Laurell K. Hamilton

  Sex, Night, Missing

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• Savages we call them, because their manners differ from ours, which we think the perfection of civility; they think the same of theirs.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Thinking, Perfection, Savages

  Benjamin Franklin, Ralph Louis Ketcham (2003). “The Political Thought of Benjamin Franklin”, p.368, Hackett Publishing

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• Well, that’s just a little hard, since I can’t even talk her into sparing your life, huh? You haven’t exactly endeared yourself to her. (Kat) Oh, excuse my utter lack of manners there. Should we call Mommy dearest and invite her over for tea? I promise to be on my best manners when I choke the life out of her. (Sin)

  Sherrilyn Kenyon

  Tea, Promise, Littles

  Sherrilyn Kenyon (2007). “Devil May Cry: A Dark-Hunter Novel”, p.94, St. Martin's Press

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• Here was an occasion, she thought, for indulging in that deliberate rudeness which only persons with habitually good manners have the right to commit.

  Stella Gibbons

  Rudeness, Cold Comfort Farm, Commit

  Stella Gibbons (1977). “Cold comfort farm”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

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• Computers will have to learn that when I quote from some old author who spelled differently from the machine, the wishes of the long-dead author will have to be respected, and the machine will have to mind its manners

  Robertson Davies

  Long, Mind, Wish

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• GENTLE READER: You, sir, are an anarchist, and Miss Manners is frightened to have anything to do with you. It is true that questioning the table manners of others is rude. But to overthrow the accepted conventions of society, on the flimsy grounds that you have found them silly, inefficient and discomforting, is a dangerous step toward destroying civilization.

  Judith Martin

  Silly, Civilization, Rude

  Judith Martin (1982). “Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior”, Scribner

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• Beside him a tiny elderly woman was leaning on a cane, studying him with curiosity. Since good manners seemed to require that he speak to her, Jon cast about for some sort of polite conversation pertinent to the occasion. “I hate funerals, don’t you?” He said. “I rather like them,” she said smugly. “At my age, I regard each funeral I attend as a personal triumph, because I was not the guest of honor.

  Judith McNaught

  Hate, Elderly, Funeral

  Judith McNaught (2003). “Paradise”, p.52, Simon and Schuster

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• So long as you minded your manners and kept your weapons concealed, they let you enter and leave in peace. Those who broke the one house rule of “No Spill Blood” quickly found themselves leaving in pieces.’ (Gallagher)

  Sherrilyn Kenyon

  Blood, Long, House

  Sherrilyn Kenyon (2015). “Winter's Night”, p.231, Macmillan

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• Manners,[...] are severly underappreciated in my opinion". "Oh?" Where practiced well, they remove the probability that someone in my position will be forced to go through the effort of killing someone in yours. Belive that on occasion that much death can become tedious.

  Michelle Sagara

  Killing Someone, Effort, Opinion

  Michelle Sagara (2016). “Michelle Sagara Chronicles of Elantra Vol 2: Cast in Secret\Cast in Fury\Cast in Silence”, p.955, MIRA

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• So if you're not Artemis Fowl, then who are you?" The boy extended a dripping hand straight up. "My name is Orion. I am so pleased to meet you at last. I am, of course, your servant." Holly shook the proferred hand, thinking that manners were lovely, but she really needed someone cunning and ruthless right now, and this kid didn't appear to be very cunning.

  Eoin Colfer

  Kids, Thinking, Boys

  Eoin Colfer (2010). “Artemis Fowl and the Atlantis Complex”, p.87, Penguin UK

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• What is always overlooked is that although the poor want to be rich, it does not follow that they either like the rich or that they in any way want to emulate their characters which, in fact, they despise. Both the poor and the rich have always found precisely the same grounds on which to complain about each other. Each feels the other has no manners, is disloyal, corrupt, insensitive - and has never put in an honest day's work in its life.

  Elaine Dundy

  Character, Doe, Complaining

  "Elvis and Gladys". Book by Elaine Dundy, 1985.

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• 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

  Giving Up, Believe, Men

  Judith Martin (1996). “Common courtesy: in which Miss Manners solves the problem that baffled Mr. Jefferson”

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• 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

  People, Rude, Telephones

  Judith Martin (1996). “Common courtesy: in which Miss Manners solves the problem that baffled Mr. Jefferson”

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• . . . women were brought up to have only one set of manners. A woman was either a lady or she wasn't, and we all know what the latter meant. Not even momentary lapses were allowed; there is no female equivalent of the boys-will-be-boys concept.

  Judith Martin

  Boys, Female, Lapses

  Judith Martin (1996). “Common courtesy: in which Miss Manners solves the problem that baffled Mr. Jefferson”

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• The problem is that it has become politically awkward to draw attention to absolutes of bad and good. In place of manners, we now have doctrines of political correctness, against which one offends at one's peril: by means of a considerable circular logic, such offences mark you as reactionary and therefore a bad person. Therefore if you say people are bad, you are bad.

  Lynne Truss

  Mean, People, Political

  "Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door". Book by Lynne Truss, 2005.

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• I smiled back, the importance of manners, my mother always said, is inversely related to how inclined one is to use them, or, in other words, sometimes politeness is all that stands between oneself and madness.

  Nicole Krauss

  Mother, Use, Madness

  Nicole Krauss (2011). “Great House: A Novel”, p.257, W. W. Norton & Company

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• The mountebank told them that God was surely trying to kill them, possibly because He was through with them, and that they should have the good manners to die. This, as you can see, they did.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Should Have, Trying, Dies

  Kurt Vonnegut (2009). “Cat's Cradle: A Novel”, p.273, Dial Press

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• There is no excuse for bad manners, except fast reflexes.

  Steven Brust

  No Excuses, Reflexes, Excuse

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• "Sorry," she said, "I got out as fast as I could, but I had to stay and socialize. Protocol, you know." "Explain protocol," Nell said. This was how she always talked to the Primer. "At the place we’re going, you need to watch your manners. Don’t say 'explain this' or 'explain that.'" "Would it impose on your time unduly to provide me with a concise explanation of the term protocol?" Nell said. Again Rita made that nervous laugh and looked at Nell with an expression that looked like poorly concealed alarm.

  Neal Stephenson

  Sorry, Expression, Laughing

  "The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer". Book by Neal Stephenson, February 1995.

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• Barbarism? That's ironic coming from a woman helping to prepare us for slaughter. And what's she basing our success on? Our table manners?

  Suzanne Collins

  Ironic, Tables, Table Manners

  Suzanne Collins (2009). “The Hunger Games”, p.69, Scholastic Inc.

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• Insofar as he'd formed any opinion of her, it was that she suffered from misplaced gentility and the mistaken belief that etiquette meant good breeding. She mistook mannerisms for manners.

  Terry Pratchett

  Belief, Opinion, Breeding

  Terry Pratchett (2008). “The Truth: (Discworld Novel 25)”, p.87, Random House

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• He begged to know to which of his fair cousins the excellency of its cookery was owing. Briefly forgetting her manners, Mary grabbed her fork and leapt from her chair onto the table. Lydia, who was seated nearest her, grabbed her ankle before she could dive at Mr. Collins and, presumably, stab him about the head and neck for such an insult.

  Seth Grahame-Smith

  Cousin, Mr Collins, Owing

  Seth Grahame-Smith, Jane Austen, Roberto Parada (2009). “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance--now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem”, p.65, Chronicle Books

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