Quotes & Sayings About Manners And Courtesy

When a phone call competes for attention with a real-world conversation, it wins. Everyone knows the distinctive high-and-dry feeling of being abandoned for a phone call, and of having to compensate - with quite elaborate behaviours = for the sudden half-disappearance of the person we were just speaking to. 'Go ahead!' we say. 'Don't mind us! Oh look, here's a magazine I can read!' When the call is over, other rituals come into play, to minimise the disruption caused and to restore good feeling. — Lynne Truss

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

This was our last night. We only had one curtain call, Bree. And I thought they were going to give us a standing ovation, but no-o-o-. Do you know why half the audience stood up?"
"To get a head start on the traffic," Bree said.
"To get a head start on the traffic," Antonia agreed in indignation. "I mean, here we are, dancing and singing our little guts out, and all those folks want to do is get to bed early. I ask you, whatever happened to common courtesy? Whatever happened to decent manners? Doesn't anyone care about craft anymore? And on top of that, it's not even nice. — Mary Stanton

The habit of looking at life as a social relation - an affair of society - did no good. It cultivated a weakness which needed no cultivation. If it had helped to make men of the world, or give the manners and instincts of any profession - such as temper, patience, courtesy, or a faculty of profiting by the social defects of opponents - it would have been education better worth having than mathematics or languages; but so far as it helped to make anything, it helped only to make the college standard permanent through life. — Henry Adams

He was so generally civil, that nobody thanked him for it. — Samuel Johnson

The line between the public life and the private life has been erased, due to the rapid decline of manners and courtesy. There is a certain crudeness and crassness that has suddenly become accepted behavior, even desirable. — Fannie Flagg

Good manners without sincerity are like a beautiful dead lady," he remarked on suitable occasion. "Straightforwardness without civility is like a surgeon's knife, effective but unpleasant. Candor with courtesy is helpful and admirable. — Paramahansa Yogananda

A polite enemy is just as difficult to discredit, as a rude friend is to protect. — Bryant McGill

In the North, he discoverd, courtesy was considered a barometer of genuine esteem; for any decently brought up Southerner, good manners were simply habitual. — Mary Doria Russell

Ceremony is necessary as the outwork and defense of manners. — Lord Chesterfield

Kindness is strength, courtesy is power. — T.A. Uner

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

Manners or etiquette ('accessibility, affability, politeness, refinement, propriety, courtesy, and ingratiating and captivating behavior') call for no large measure of moral determination and cannot, therefore, be reckoned as virtues. Even though manners are no virtues, they are a means of developing virtue ... The more we refine the crude elements in our nature, the more we improve our humanity and the more capable it grows of feeling the driving force of virtuous principles. — Immanuel Kant

Evil communications corrupt good manners. — Charles Dickens

The whole of heraldry and of chivalry is in courtesy. A man of fine manners shall pronounce your name with all the ornament that titles of nobility could ever add. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

What does competency in the long run mean? It means to all reasonable beings, cleanliness of person, decency of dress, courtesy of manners, opportunities for education, the delights of leisure, and the bliss of giving. — Edwin Percy Whipple

Once he got there, he stopped and looked back. You know, the thing about manners is that we only seem to notice the lack of them in others. It's a lot harder to see mistakes in ourselves. — Rose Wynters

Consideration is the basis of etiquette, and it starts at home. If you can't show consideration to your spouse, child or family member any consideration you show outside is shallow and a farce. — Chinha Raheja

The greater person is one of courtesy. — Alfred Lord Tennyson

others is required, it probably indicates a lack of courtesy - that is, a lack of manners. — Peter F. Drucker

It is by no means enough that an officer should be capable ... He should be as well a gentleman of liberal education, refined manners, punctilious courtesy, and the nicest sense of personal honor ... No meritorious act of a subordinate should escape his attention, even if the reward be only one word of approval. Conversely, he should not be blind to a single fault in any subordinate. — John Paul Jones

Being nice should never be perceived as being weak. It's not a sign of weakness, it's a sign of courtesy, manners, grace, a woman's ability to make everyone ... feel at home, and it should never be construed as weakness ... — Benazir Bhutto

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

The first rule of etiquette a boy learns when he's about to enter
society is that civility is due to all women. No provocation, no
matter how unjust and rudely delivered, can validate a man who fails
to treat a woman with anything less than utmost courtesy."
The boys hung on his every word. He glanced in her direction.
"I have met some incredibly unpleasant women, and I have never failed
in this duty. But I must admit: your sister may prove my undoing. — Ilona Andrews

And the people love a well-mannered killer. — Michael R. Fletcher

Courtesy is breeding. Breeding is an excellent thing. Always remember that. — Lillian Hellman

Civility means a great deal more than just being nice to one another. It is complex and encompasses learning how to connect successfully and live well with others, developing thoughtfulness, and fostering effective self-expression and communication. Civility includes courtesy, politeness, mutual respect, fairness, good manners, as well as a matter of good health. Taking an active interest in the well-being of our community and concern for the health of our society is also involved in civility. — P. M. Forni

Several years ago we added "my pleasure" to the manners chart after we read the book How Did You Do It, Truett? by S. Truett Cathy, founder of Chick-fil-A. In it, Mr. Cathy tells how he studied the methods of five-star hotels and found that workers are required to say "My pleasure" instead of "You're welcome" when being thanked for something. In essence, one is saying, "Thank you for giving me the pleasure of serving you," and not, "Yes, it was such a sacrifice on my part. You're welcome." He found a direct link between business success and employees learning to treat costumers with the utmost courtesy and respect, and that was one of the principles he adopted for all Chick-fil-A workers. — Jill Duggar

The greater man the greater courtesy. — Alfred Lord Tennyson

One reason that the task of inventing manners is so difficult is that etiquette is folk custom, and people have emotional ties to the forms of their youth. That is why there is such hostility between generations in times of rapid change; their manners being different, each feels affronted by the other, taking even the most surface choices for challenges. — Judith Martin

Courtesy is the foundation of all good manners. — William Riley Brooksher

The first point of courtesy must always be truth. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Courtesy, modesty, good manners, conformity to definite ethical standards are universal, but what constitutes courtesy, modesty, good manners, and definite ethical standards is not universal. It is instructive to know that standards differ in the most unexpected ways — Franz Boas

Party animosity was concealed under a veil of studied courtesy. — Barbara W. Tuchman

Courtesy is the politic witchery of great personages. — Baltasar Gracian

Courtesy and kindness cultivate confidence with good Netiquette. Doing things right makes you feel good. — David Chiles

No one is more insufferable than he who lacks basic courtesy. — Bryant McGill

Life is short, but there is always time enough for courtesy. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Passion and courtesy are two polar opposite traits that serve to balance each other into a full-blooded whole.
Without socialization, passion is a crude barbarian, and without passion, the elegant and polite are dead.
Allow both passion and courtesy into your life in equal measure, and be complete. — Vera Nazarian

The knowledge of courtesy and good manners is a very necessary study. It is like grace and beauty, that which begets liking and an inclination to love one another at the first sight. — Michel De Montaigne

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

Under his buckskin riding-coat he wore a black vest and the cravat and collar of a churchman. A young priest, at his devotions; and a priest in a thousand, one knew at a glance. His bowed head was not that of an ordinary man, - it was built for the seat of a fine intelligence. His brow was open, generous, reflective, his features handsome and somewhat severe. There was a singular elegance about the hands below the fringed cuffs of the buckskin jacket. Everything showed him to be a man of gentle birth - brave, sensitive, courteous. His manners, even when he was alone in the desert, were distinguished. He had a kind of courtesy toward himself, toward his beasts, toward the juniper tree before which he knelt, and the God whom he was addressing. — Willa Cather