Emily Post Quotes & Sayings

The natural impulses of every thoroughbred include his sense of honor; his love of fair play and courage; his dislike of pretense and of cheapness. — Emily Post

The letter we all love to receive is one that carries so much of the writer's personality that she seems to be sitting beside us, looking at us directly and talking just as she really would, could she have come on a magic carpet, instead of sending her proxy in ink-made characters on mere paper. — Emily Post

Thus Best Society is not a fellowship of the wealthy, nor does it seek to exclude those who are not of exalted birth; but it is an association of gentle-folk, of which good form in speech, charm of manner, knowledge of the social amenities, and instinctive consideration for the feelings of others, are the credentials by which society the world over recognizes its chosen members. — Emily Post

To make a pleasant and friendly impression is not only good manners, but equally good business. — Emily Post

The best ingredients for likeableness are a happy expression of countenance, an unaffected manner, and a sympathetic attitude. — Emily Post

The most advertised commodity is not always intrinsically the best; but is sometimes merely the product of a company, with plenty of money to spend on advertising. — Emily Post

The most vulgar slang is scarcely worse than the attempted elegance which those unused to good society imagine to be the evidence of cultivation. — Emily Post

In popular houses where visitors like to go again and again, there is always a happy combination of some attention on the part of the hostess and the perfect freedom of the guests to occupy their time as they choose. — Emily Post

There is a big deposit of sympathy in the bank of love, but don't draw out little sums every hour or so - so that by and by, when perhaps you need it badly, it is all drawn out and you yourself don't know how or on what it was spent. — Emily Post

Never so long as you live, write a letter to a man - no matter who he is - that you would be ashamed to see in a newspaper above your signature. — Emily Post

People who picnic along the public highway leaving a clutter of greasy paper and swill (not a pretty name, but neither is it a pretty object!) for other people to walk or drive past, and to make a breeding place for flies, and furnish nourishment for rats, choose a disgusting way to repay the land-owner for the liberty they took in temporarily occupying his property. — Emily Post

Bread is like dressed, hats and shoes - in other words, essential! — Emily Post

A gentleman should never take his hat off with a flourish. — Emily Post

Consideration for the rights and feelings of others is not merely a rule for behavior in public but the very foundation upon which social life is built. — Emily Post

It is impossible for a hatless woman to be chic. — Emily Post

Houses without personality are a series of walled enclosures with furniture standing around in them. Other houses are filled with things of little intrinsic value, even with much that is shabby and yet they have that inviting atmosphere ... — Emily Post

Never take more than your share - whether of the road in driving your car, of chairs on a boat or seats on a train, or food at the table. — Emily Post

Courtesy demands that you, when you are a guest, shall show neither annoyance nor disappointment
no matter what happens. — Emily Post

An overdose of praise is like 10 lumps of sugar in coffee; only a very few people can swallow it. — Emily Post

Never say "Au revoir" unless you have been talking French, or are speaking to a French person. — Emily Post

A lady never asks a gentleman to dance, or to go to supper with her. — Emily Post

A gentleman does not boast about his junk. — Emily Post

Nothing is less important than which fork you use. Etiquette is the science of living. It embraces everything. It is ethics. It is honor. — Emily Post

One very great annoyance in open air gatherings is cigar smoke when blown directly in one's face or worse yet the smoke from a smouldering cigar. It is almost worthy of a study in air currents to discover why with plenty of space all around, a tiny column of smoke will make straight for the nostrils of the very one most nauseated by it! — Emily Post

Nothing appeals to children more than justice, and they should be taught in the nursery to "play fair" in games, to respect each other's property and rights, to give credit to others, and not to take too much credit to themselves. — Emily Post

Good manners reflect something from inside-an innate sense of consideration for others and respect for self. — Emily Post

Alas! it is true: "Be polite to bores and so shall you have bores always round about you." — Emily Post

Manners are made up of trivialities of deportment which can be easily learned if one does not happen to know them; manner is personality - the outward manifestation of one's innate character and attitude toward life ... Etiquette must, if it is to be of more than trifling use, include ethics as well as manners. Certainly what one is, is of far greater importance than what one appears to be. — Emily Post

The only occasion when the traditions of courtesy permit a hostess to help herself before a woman guest is when she has reason to believe the food is poisoned. — Emily Post

Custom is a mutable thing; yet we readily recognize the permanence of certain social values. Graciousness and courtesy are never old-fashioned. — Emily Post

Ideal conversation must be an exchange of thought, and not, as many of those who worry most about their shortcomings believe, an eloquent exhibition of wit or oratory. — Emily Post

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

To tell a lie in cowardice, to tell a lie for gain, or to avoid deserved punishment
are all the blackest of black lies. — Emily Post

The good guest is almost invisible, enjoying him or herself, communing with fellow guests, and, most of all, enjoying the generous hospitality of the hosts. — Emily Post

The only extra plates ever permitted are the bread and butter plates which are put on at breakfast and lunch and supper above and to the left of the forks, but never at dinner. — Emily Post

The attributes of a great lady may still be found in the rule of the four S's: Sincerity, Simplicity, Sympathy and Serenity. — Emily Post

A little praise is not only merest justice but is beyond the purse of no one. — Emily Post

When you see a woman in silks and sables and diamonds speak to a little errand girl or a footman or a scullery maid as though they were the dirt under her feet, you may be sure of one thing; she hasn't come a very long way from the ground herself. — Emily Post

"Keep your hands to yourself!" might almost be put at the head of the first chapter of every book on etiquette. — Emily Post

Etiquette requires the presumption of good until the contrary is proved. — Emily Post

If you are hurt, whether in mind or body, don't nurse your bruises. Get up and light-heartedly, courageously, good temperedly get ready for the next encounter. This is the only way to take life - this is also 'playing' the game! — Emily Post

Any child can be taught to be beautifully behaved with no effort greater than quiet patience and perseverance, whereas to break bad habits once they are acquired is a Herculean task. — Emily Post

Children are all more or less little monkeys in that they imitate everything they see. If their mother treats them exactly as she does her visitors they in turn play "visitor" to perfection. Nothing hurts the feelings of children more than not being allowed to behave like grown persons when they think they are able. — Emily Post

No rule of etiquette is of less importance than which fork we use. — Emily Post

The fact that slang is apt and forceful makes its use irresistibly tempting. Coarse or profane slang is beside the mark, but "flivver," "taxi," the "movies," "deadly" (meaning dull), "feeling fit," "feeling blue," "grafter," a "fake," "grouch," "hunch" and "right o!" are typical of words that it would make our spoken language stilted to exclude. — Emily Post

If God had intended for women to wear slacks, He would have constructed them differently. — Emily Post

Manners are like primary colors, there are certain rules and once you have these you merely mix, i.e., adapt, them to meet changing situations. — Emily Post

Rather be frumpy than vulgar! Much. Frumps are often celebrities in disguise
but a person of vulgar appearance is vulgar all through. — Emily Post

There is no reason why you should be bored when you can be otherwise. But if you find yourself sitting in the hedgerow with nothing but weeds, there is no reason for shutting your eyes and seeing nothing, instead of finding what beauty you may in the weeds. To put it cynically, life is too short to waste it in drawing blanks. Therefore, it is up to you to find as many pictures to put on your blank pages as possible. — Emily Post

The fault of bad taste is usually in over-dressing. Quality not effect, is the standard to seek for. — Emily Post

The joy of joys is the person of light but unmalicious humor. If you know any one who is gay, beguiling and amusing, you will, if you are wise, do everything you can to make him prefer your house and your table to any other; for where he is, the successful party is also. — Emily Post

Unconsciousness of self is not so much unselfishness as it is the mental ability to extinguish all thought of one's self - exactly as one turns out the light. — Emily Post

Training a child is exactly like training a puppy; a little heedless inattention and it is out of hand immediately; the great thing is not to let it acquire bad habits that must afterward be broken. — Emily Post

Whenever two people come together and their behavior affects one another, you have etiquette. — Emily Post

Manner is personality - the outward manifestation of one's innate character and attitude toward life. — Emily Post

Jealousy is the suspicion of one's own inferiority. — Emily Post

Never think, because you cannot write a letter easily, that it is better not to write at all. The most awkward note imaginable is better than none. — Emily Post

Who does not dislike a "boneless" hand extended as though it were a spray of sea-weed, or a miniature boiled pudding? — Emily Post

To be a good sportsman, one must be a stoic and never show rancor in defeat, or triumph in victory, or irritation, no matter what annoyance is encountered. One who can not help sulking, or explaining, or protesting when the loser, or exulting when the winner, has no right to take part in games or contests. — Emily Post

Golf is a particularly severe strain upon the amiability of the average person's temper, and in no other game, except bridge, is serenity of disposition so essential. — Emily Post

Persons under the shock of genuine affliction are not only upset mentally but are all unbalanced physically. No matter how calm and controlled they seemingly may be, no one can under such circumstances be normal. Their disturbed circulation makes them cold, their distress makes them unstrung, sleepless. Persons they normally like, they often turn from. No one should ever be forced upon those in grief, and all over-emotional people, no matter how near or dear, should be barred absolutely. Although the knowledge that their friends love them and sorrow for them is a great solace, the nearest afflicted must be protected from any one or anything which is likely to overstrain nerves already at the threatening point, and none have the right to feel hurt if they are told they can neither be of use or be received. At such a time, to some people companionship is a comfort, others shrink from their dearest friends. — Emily Post

Never do anything that is unpleasant to others. — Emily Post

To the old saying that man built the house but woman made of it a 'home' might be added the modern supplement that woman accepted cooking as a chore but man has made of it a recreation. — Emily Post

To do exactly as your neighbors do is the only sensible rule. — Emily Post

The honor of a gentleman demands the inviolability of his word, and the incorruptibility of his principles. He is the descendent of the knight, the crusader; he is the defender of the defenseless and the champion of justice
or he is not a gentleman. — Emily Post