Manners Quotes - Page 5

• Serenity of manners is the zenith of beauty.

  Fredrika Bremer

  Serenity, Zenith

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• Manners are of such great consequence to the novelist that any kind will do. Bad manners are better than no manners at all, and because we are losing our customary manners, we are probably overly conscious of them; this seems to be a condition that produces writers.

  Flannery O'Connor

  Novelists, Literature, Losing

  Flannery O'Connor (1969). “Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose”, p.29, Macmillan

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• I could start a war in 30 seconds. But some countries spend 100 years trying to find peace. Just like good manners, peace has to be learned.

  Sylvester Stallone

  Country, War, Years

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• Prepare yourself for the world, as athletes used to do for their exercises; oil your mind and your manners, to give them the necessary suppleness and flexibility; strength alone will not do.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Strength, Being Strong, Athlete

  Lord Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield, Eugenia Stanhope (1827). “Letters Written by the Earl of Chesterfield to His Son”, p.301

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• Find, if you can, in what you cannot change. Manners with fortunes, humours turn with climes, Tenets with books, and principles with times.

  Alexander Pope

  Book, Principles, Courtesy

  "The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope: To which is Prefixed a Life of the Author".

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• Ceremony is necessary in Courts, as the outwork and defense of manners.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Defense, Courtesy, Ceremony

  "The Modern Chesterfield".

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• 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

  Thinking About You, Perfection, Way

  Richard Whately (1856). “Thoughts and Apophthegms: From the Writings of Archbishop Whateley”, p.155

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• We don't bother much about dress and manners in England, because as a nation we don't dress well and we've no manners.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Dresses, England, Etiquette

  You Never Can Tell (1898) act 1

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• Eye Nature's walks, shoot folly as it flies, And catch the manners living as they rise; Laugh where we must, be candid where we can, But vindicate the ways of God to man.

  Alexander Pope

  Life, Laughter, Eye

  'An Essay on Man' Epistle 1 (1733) l. 13

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• Associate with well-mannered persons and your manners will improve. Run around with decent folk and your own decent instincts will be strengthened.

  Stanley Walker

  Running, Instinct, Well Mannered

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• Manhood is melted into courtesies, valor into compliment, and men are only turned into tongue, and trim ones, too.

  William Shakespeare

  Men, Tongue, Courtesy

  William Shakespeare (1909). “Much Ado About Nothing; Hamlet”

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• A moral, sensible, and well-bred manWill not affront me, and no other can.

  William Cowper

  Moral, Courtesy, Affront

  William Cowper, “Conversation”

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• Better were it to be unborn than to be ill bred.

  Walter Raleigh

  Ill, Unborn

  Sir Walter Raleigh, William Oldys, Thomas Birch (1829). “Miscellaneous works”, p.560

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• Men are like wine,--not good before the lees of clownishness be settled.

  Owen Feltham

  Wine, Men

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• A man's manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Attitude, Men, Mirrors

  "Maxims and Reflections". Book by by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, translated by Elisabeth Stopp. Maxim 39, 1998.

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• Fine manners need the support of fine manners in others.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Support, Needs, Fine

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Barbara L. Packer, Joseph Slater, Douglas Emory Wilson (2003). “The Conduct of Life”, p.97, Harvard University Press

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• I seek constantly to improve my manners and graces, for they are the sugar to which all are attracted.

  Og Mandino

  Grace, Sugar, Good Manners

  Og Mandino (2009). “The Greatest Secret in the World”, p.53, Bantam

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• The society of women is the element of good manners.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Good Man, Elements, Good Manners

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1897). “Criticisms, reflections, and maxims of Goethe: Tr., with an introduction”

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• Manners are the ornament of action.

  Samuel Smiles

  Ornaments, Action

  Samuel Smiles (1859). “Self-help; with illustrations of character and conduct”, p.323

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• Good manners sometimes means simply putting up with other people's bad manners.

  H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

  Inspirational, Mean, People

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• A man's own good breeding is the best security against other people's ill manners.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Inspirational, Men, People

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• What you discover about people you try not to offend is that you can offend them without trying.

  Robert Breault

  People, Trying

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• Perfect behavior is born of complete indifference.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Perfect, Behaviour, Indifference

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• The mobs of the great cities add just so much to the support of pure government as sores do to the strength of the human body. It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Heart, Government, Law

  Thomas Jefferson, John Dewey (2008). “The Essential Jefferson”, p.75, Courier Corporation

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• . . . Virtue, morality, and religion. This is the armor, my friend, and this alone that renders us invincible. These are the tactics we should study. If we lose these, we are conquered, fallen indeed . . . so long as our manners and principles remain sound, there is no danger.

  Patrick Henry

  Long, Liberty, Sound

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