Manners Quotes - Page 34

• Good manners disappear in proportion as the influence of a Court and an exclusive aristocracy lessens; this decrease can be plainly observed from decade to decade by those who have an eye for public behavior, which grows visibly.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Eye, Good Man, Aristocracy

  Friedrich Nietzsche (2012). “Human, All-Too-Human: Parts One and Two”, p.135, Courier Corporation

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• So, you are very welcome to our house. It must appear in other ways than words, Therefore, I scant this breathing courtesy.

  William Shakespeare

  Breathing, House, Way

  William Shakespeare, George Steevens, Edmond Malone, Alexander Chalmers, Alexander Pope (1826). “Merchant of Venice. As you like it. All's well that ends well. Taming of the shrew. Winter's tale”, p.87

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• To rest, the cushion and soft dean invite, who never mentions hell to ears polite.

  Alexander Pope

  Ears, Hell, Courtesy

  'Epistles to Several Persons' 'To Lord Burlington' (1731) l. 149

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• Diplomacy is the lowest form of politeness because it misquotes the greatest number of people. A nation, like an individual, if it has anything to say, should simply say it.

  E. B. White

  Numbers, People, Courtesy

  E. B. White (2011). “In the Words of E.B. White: Quotations from America's Most Companionable of Writers”, p.93, Cornell University Press

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• That all persons living in this province, who confess and acknowledge the one Almighty and eternal God, to be the Creator, Upholder and Ruler of the world; and that hold themselves obliged in conscience to live peaceably and justly in civil society, shall, in no ways, be molested or prejudiced for their religious persuasion, or practice, in manners of faith and worship, nor shall they be compelled, at any time, to frequent or maintain any religious worship, place or ministry whatever.

  William Penn

  Religious, Practice, Liberty

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• There is a certain impertinence in allowing oneself to be burned for an opinion.

  Anatole France

  Moral, Opinion, Certain

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• Beware of a man with manners.

  Eudora Welty

  Fake People, Men, People

  Eudora Welty (1956). “The Golden Apples”, p.14, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• She had a womanly instinct that clothes possess an influence more powerful over many than the worth of character or the magic of manners.

  Louisa May Alcott

  Powerful, Character, Clothes

  1869 Little Women, pt.2, ch.34.

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• Repeal that [welfare] law, and you will soon see a change in their manners. ... Six days shalt thou labor, though one of the old commandments long treated as out of date, will again be looked upon as a respectable precept; industry will increase, and with it plenty among the lower people; their circumstances will mend, and more will be done for their happiness by inuring them to provide for themselves, than could be done by dividing all your estates among them.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Law, Long, People

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• Tobacco smoke is the one element in which, by our European manners, men can sit silent together without embarrassment, and where no man is bound to speak one word more than he has actually and veritably got to say. Nay, rather every man is admonished and enjoined by the laws of honor, and even of personal ease, to stop short of that point; and at all events to hold his peace and take to his pipe again the instant he has spoken his meaning, if he chance to have any.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Men, Law, Smoking

  Thomas Carlyle, Henry Duff Traill (1903). “The Works of Thomas Carlyle: History of Friedrich II of Prussia, called Frederick the Great”

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• Time indeed changes manners and notions, and so far we must expect institutions to bend to them. But time produces also corruption of principles, and against this it is the duty of good citizens to be ever on the watch, and if the gangrene is to prevail at last, let the day be kept off as long as possible.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Long, Principles, Watches

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence and Papers, 1816-1826”, p.201, Cosimo, Inc.

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• I sincerely wish you may find it convenient to come here. the pleasure of the trip will be less than you expect, but the utility greater. it will make you adore your own country, it's soil, it's climate, it's equality, liberty, laws, people & manners. my god! how little do my countrymen know.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Country, Law, People

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia II, Correspondence 1782-1786”, p.424, Cosimo, Inc.

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• How sweet and gracious, even in common speech, Is that fine sense which men call Courtesy! Wholesome as air and genial as the light, Welcome in every clime as breath of flowers, It transmutes aliens into trusting friends, And gives its owner passport round the globe.

  James Thomas Fields

  Sweet, Flower, Men

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• Your idea of fidelity is not having more than one man in bed at the same time.

  Frederic Raphael

  Sarcastic, Men, Ideas

  'Darling' (1965) ch. 18

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• The ignorant are afraid to betray surprise or admiration...they think it ill manners.

  Mark Twain

  Ignorance, Thinking, Ignorant

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• The beginning of civilisation is the discovery of some useful arts, by which men acquire property, comforts, or luxuries. The necessity or desire of preserving them leads to laws and social institutions. The discovery of peculiar arts gives superiority to particular nations ... to subjugate other nations, who learn their arts, and ultimately adopt their manners;- so that in reality the origin as well as the progress and improvement of civil society is founded in mechanical and chemical inventions.

  Humphry Davy

  Art, Science, Reality

  Sir Humphry Davy (1840). “Salmonia: or, Days of fly-fishing; in a series of conversations: with some account of the habits of fishes belonging to the genus Salmo. Consolation in travel, or, The last days of a philosopher”, p.351

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• Public opinion, I am sorry to say, will bear a great deal of nonsense. There is scarcely any absurdity so gross, whether in religion, politics, science or manners, which it will not bear.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Im Sorry, Public Opinion, I Am Sorry

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• Now, a corpse, poor thing, is an untouchable and the process of decay is, of all pieces of bad manners, the vulgarest imaginable. For a corpse is, by definition, a person absolutely devoid of savoir vivre.

  Aldous Huxley

  Death, Dying, Decay

  Aldous Huxley (2000). “Complete Essays: 1930-1935”, Ivan R Dee

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• Hollywood wants to make women so perfect. Perfect hair. Perfect job. Perfect manners... I know some of the most beautiful women, and they are so weird. That's what makes them funny and captivating.

  Melissa McCarthy

  Beautiful, Jobs, Badass

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• Those that are good manners at the court are as ridiculous in the country, as the behavior of the country is most mockable at the court.

  William Shakespeare

  Country, Memorable, Good Man

  William Shakespeare (2012). “Comedies of Shakespeare in Plain and Simple English (a Modern Translation and the Original Version)”, p.672, BookCaps Study Guides

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• I sent my Christmas wishes to him, but he didn't answer. He's the world's best coach, but as a man he still has to learn manners and respect.

  Mario Balotelli

  Football, Men, Christmas Wishes

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• How dangerous it is rashly to adopt the Mosaical institutions [Old Testament teachings of eye for an eye]. Laws might have been proper for a tribe of ardent barbarians wandering through the sands of Arabia which are wholly unfit for an enlightened people of civilized and gentle manners.

  Gerald Heaney

  Teaching, Eye, Law

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• Did you, too, O friend, suppose democracy was only for elections, for politics, and for a party name? I say democracy is only of use there that it may pass on and come to its flower and fruit in manners, in the highest forms of interaction between people, and their beliefs - in religion, literature, colleges and schools- democracy in all public and private life.

  Walt Whitman

  Party, Flower, School

  Walt Whitman (2009). “Democratic Vistas: The Original Edition in Facsimile”, p.33, University of Iowa Press

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• It has always been like that with changes. In 1913, we established divorce as a right for women in Uruguay. You know what they were saying back then? That families would dissolve. That it was the end of good manners and society. There has always been a conservative and traditional opinion out there that's afraid of change. When I was young and would go dancing at balls, we'd have to wear suits and ties. Otherwise they wouldn't let us in. I don't think anyone dresses up for dancing parties nowadays.

  Jose Mujica

  Powerful, Party, Humble

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• Punishments of unreasonable severity, especially where indiscriminately afflicted, have less effect in preventing crimes, and amending the manners of a people, than such as are more merciful in general, yet properly intermixed with due distinctions of severity.

  William Blackstone

  Punishment, People, Hell

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