Quotes about politeness

But Johannes had said, "Politeness is something you owe other people, because when you show a little courtesy, everything becomes easier and better. But first and foremost, it's something you owe yourself. You are David.

Can he love her? Can the soul really be satisfied with such polite affections? To love is to burn - to be on fire, like Juliet or Guinevere or Eloise...

It is astounding what power being kind, mannered, polite and considerate has in transforming your life.

A moment of truth is very powerful. Instead of smiling to be polite, just frown. Instead of laughing when you are nervous or uncomfortable, just speak your truth. Instead of acting like everything is all right, proclaim it isn't alright, and talk about your feelings! Honor your truth. Honor yourself. Be real.

The boldness of his mind was sheathed in a scabbard of politeness.

Lively, intelligent, and quite immature, [Emily] usually burst out with exactly the comment that summed up the situation beautifully and therefore could never in politeness be said.

Preserve me from such cordiality! It is like handling briar-roses and may-blossoms - bright enough to the eye, and outwardly soft to the touch, but you know there are thorns beneath, and every now and then you feel them too; and perhaps resent the injury by crushing them in till you have destroyed their power, though somewhat to the detriment of your own fingers.

Oppressors specialise in rasing wolves from amonst the sheep then together with the wolves devour the sheep

The crime rates would go right down, I think, if Americans stopped saying: 'Have a nice day,' to one another. At least it would stop me from contemplating violence; when people in shops & so on order me to have a nice day in this authoritarian way, I want to kill, kill, kill. When I mutter 'sod off' under my breath, they think it is a Russian Orthodox benediction.

My generation of radicals and breakers-down never found anything to take the place of the old virtues of work and courage and the old graces of courtesy and politeness.

Reading at meals is considered rude in polite society, but if you expect to succeed as a writer, rudeness should be the second-to-least of your concerns. The least of all should be polite society and what it expects.

Piety is a discipline of the will through respect. It admits the right to exist of things larger than the ego, of things different from the ego.

The natural flow of discourse must be calm and serene; if wit, whim, fun and fire are present, they will not fail to flash brightly along its surface; but they can never constitute the main body of the stream itself.

If ever you get invited into someone's home,' my father said (as he had been invited five or six times that morning), 'you go into the sitting-room and you say, “Oh, what an attractive room!" even if you think it's hideous.

Be not intimidated...nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberties by any pretense of politeness, delicacy, or decency. These, as they are often used, are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery and cowardice.

All my life I have placed great store in civility and good manners, practices I find scarce among the often hard-edged, badly socialized scientists with whom I associate. Tone of voice means a great deal to me in the course of debate. I despise the arrogance and doting self-regard so frequently found among the very bright.

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? Doe

Woah,' I said, blocking the doorway. 'You can't come in here. This is the girls' r

When the Starbursts cost a cent apiece, the average number of candies per customer was 3.5, but when the price went down to zero, the average went down to 1.1 per customer. The students limited themselves to a large degree when the candy was free. In fact, almost all the students applied a very simple social-norm rule in this situation—they politely took one and only one Starburst. ... What these results mean is that when price is not a part of the exchange, we become less selfish maximizers and

In nothing do we fail more, as a Mission, than in lack of tact and politeness.

the veneer of civilization is exceedingly thin

He accomplished wonders of diplomacy on the principle, never give way, and never give offense.

He knew very well that the great majority of human conversation is meaningless. A man can get through most of his days on stock answers to stock questions, he thought. Once he catches onto the game, he can manage with an assortment of grunts. This would not be so if people listened to each other, but they don't. They know that no one is going to say anything moving and important to them at that very moment. Anything important will be announced in the newspapers and reprinted for those who missed

PLEASE and THANK YOU...two polite phrases which are slowly disappearing from our vocabulary.

We are enjoined whenever we behold the gifts of God in others so to reverence and respect the gifts as also to honor those in whom they reside.

Politeness [is] a sign of dignity, not subservience.

Rudeness, abruptness, gory tales of blood and thunder, and coarse language usually show up the greenhorn or counterfeit, and certainly the ill-bred. "The bravest are the tenderest; the gentlest are the daring.

I am going to the USA to catch sight of a wild porcupine and to give some lectures.

Infants never learn to soothe themselves to sleep. They learn, abandoned in seclusion, that no matter the volume of their despondence, no matter the force of their tears, when they are alone and frightened, no-one will ever come to their rescue. Infants do not soothe themselves. They merely surrender. And it is caged in their cribs where the infants learn, in the face of their demons, to remain silent and submitting.

Often people that tell others they are "extremely polite" when the situation calls for tact and bluntness are not actually polite people. Instead, they hide behind the word “polite” because they have low self esteem or hidden agendas. Sadly, they impolitely confuse the hell out of everyone, send mixed signals, which then makes people question their sanity and motives.

Even a wolf knows how to be polite when animalistic humans have no clue about politeness

Sick cultures show a complex of symptoms such as you have named...but a dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than is a riot.

Have you shat, my child, I said gently.

THE MYTH OF THE GOOD OL BOY AND THE NICE GAL The good of boy myth and the nice gal are a kind of social conformity myth. They create a real paradox when put together with the "rugged individual" part of the Success Myth. How can I be a rugged individual, be my own man and conform at the same time? Conforming means "Don't make a wave", "Don't rock the boat". Be a nice gal or a good ol' boy. This means that we have to pretend a lot. "We are taught to be nice and polite. We are taught that these b

As the head of an expedition, you can't pussyfoot around being polite to everyone. You have to show your teeth once in a while; a little growling goes a long way.

It is wise to apply the oil of refined politeness to the mechanism of friendship.

When I act tough they listen politely till the spasm passes. They know.

If the secret core of potlatch is the reciprocity of exchange, why is this reciprocity not asserted directly, why does it assume the “mystified” form of two consecutive acts each of which is staged as a free voluntary display of generosity? Here we encounter the paradoxes of forced choice, of freedom to do what is necessary, at its most elementary: I have to do freely what I am expected to do. (If, upon receiving a gift, I immediately return it to the giver, this direct circulation would amount

Ironic. I'm here because of my inherent dangerousness, but it's my inherent politeness that makes me put up with this. With him.

Nay, but prithee, with sprinkles 'pon it instead," I said solemnly, "and frosting of white.

Acceptable hypocrisy is often called politeness.

Politeness. Now there's a poor man's virtue if ever there was one. What's so admirable about inoffensiveness, I should like to know. After all, it's easily achieved. One needs no particular talent to be polite. On the contrary, being nice is what's left when you've failed at everything else. People with ambition don't give a damn what other people think about them.

The author relates George Bernard Shaw's sentiments that polite conversation excludes the only two subjects that matter, religion and politics.

E-mail has some magical ability to turn off the politeness gene in a human being.

Politeness. Being nice is what's left when you've failed at everything else.

Never start a sentence with the words 'No offense.

Gentleman: An imaginary creature found in Jane Austen novels.

I suggest he starts introducing himself as "Lessman"; he is classless, tactless, and mannerless.

As a Texan, I say ma'm and sir to my age contemporaries and open doors for anyone that I can. This goes for men, too, though it is appreciated when they beat me to it and disappointing when they don't.

In Japan, I was immensely impressed by the politeness, industrious nature and conscientiousness of the Japanese people.

He who says what he likes shall hear what he does not like.

Modesty: the gentle art of enhancing your charm by pretending not to be aware of it.

Never speak of a man in his own presence. It is always indelicate and may be offensive .

The opposite of talking is not listening. The opposite of talking is waiting.

(Politeness is) a tacit agreement that people's miserable defects whether moral or intellectual shall on either side be ignored and not be made the subject of reproach.

Good manners are made up of petty sacrifices.

Manners are the hypocrisy of a nation.

Politeness is good nature regulated by good sense.

If a man didn't make sense the Scotch felt it was misplaced politeness to try to keep him from knowing it. Better that he be aware of his reputation for this would encourage reticence which goes well with stupidity.

A man must have very eminent qualities to hold his own without being polite.

Ah men do not know how much strength is in poise that he goes the farthest who goes far enough.

Questioning is not the mode of conversation among gentlemen.

It doesn't matter what you do in the bedroom as long as you don't do it in the streets and frighten the horses.

There is always a best way of doing everything if it be only to boil an egg. Manners are the happy ways of doing things.

There is not a single outward mark of courtesy that does not have a deep moral basis.

Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.

Charming people live up to the very edge of their charm and behave as outrageously as the world will let them.

Etiquette means behaving yourself a little better than is absolutely essential.

I can't stand a naked light bulb any more than I can stand a rude remark or a vulgar action.

Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.

Chivalry is the most delicate form of contempt.

A true gentlemen is one who is never unintentionally rude.

Chivalry is a poor substitute for justice if one cannot have both. Chivalry is something like the icing on cake sweet but not nourishing.

(A gentleman) is any man who wouldn't hit a woman with his hat on.

This is the final test of a gentleman: his respect for those who can be of no possible service to him.

A gentleman is mindful no less of the freedom of others than of his own dignity.

What is the test of good manners? Being able to bear patiently with bad ones.

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

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

Be polite write diplomatically even in a declaration of war one observes the rules of politeness.

Time is no one's friend--time has no social niceties and holds the door for nobody nowhere. But I hold the door for time, with my one good paw.

In England I am always madam; I arrived too late to ever be a miss. In New York I have only been madamed once, by the doorman at the Carlyle Hotel.

When your family is twice as weird as normal, you have to be twice as polite to authority, because authority hates weird.