Quotes of Decorum - somelinesforyou

“ Civility costs nothing and buys everything. ”

- Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

“ Oh, the times! Oh, the manners! ”

- Marcus Tullius Cicero

“ Politeness, n. The most acceptable hypocrisy. ”

- Ambrose Bierce

“ Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never dealt with a cat. ”

- Robert Anson Heinlein

“ Every man has his moral backside which he refrains from showing unless he has to and keeps covered as long as possible with the trousers of decorum. ”

- Georg C. Lichtenberg

“ And doing a film in that period, and having to really celebrate what they wore back then, how they sat and how they spoke. You know, what the etiquette was back then for a lady. All of those things are like putting on a wig and transforming yourself, which I love. ”

- Charlize Theron

“ No matter how well you perform there's always somebody of intelligent opinion who thinks it's lousy. ”

- Sir Lawrence Olivier

“ Etiquette tip: More people will get out of your way if you say "I'm gonna puke!" than if you say "Excuse me". ”

- Mark Twain

“ I begin to grow heartily tired of the etiquette and nonsense so fashionable in this city. ”

- George Mason

“ Friendship cannot live with ceremony, nor without civility. ”

- Edward F. Halifax

“ 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

“ Etiquette — a fancy word for simple kindness. ”

- Elsa Maxwell

“ What once were vices are now manners. ”

- Seneca

“ Politeness goes far, yet costs nothing. ”

- Samuel Smiles

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

- Oliver Herford

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

- Samuel Johnson

“ The opposite of talking isn't listening. The opposite of talking is waiting. ”

- Fran Lebowitz

“ Politeness is... good nature regulated by good sense. ”

- Sydney Smith

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

- Jean de la Bruyere

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

- James Russell Lowell

“ There is always a best way of doing everything. ”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

- Goethe

“ Charming people live up to the very edge of their charm, and behave as outrageously as the world lets them. ”

- Logan Pearsall Smith

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

- Tennessee Williams

“ A true gentlemen is one who is never unintentionally rude. ”

- Oscar Wilde

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

- Nellie McClung

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

- Solomon Ibn Gabirol

“ We already know that anonymous letters are despicable. In etiquette, as well as in law, hiring a hit man to do the job does not relieve you of responsibility. ”

- Judith Martin

“ The Australian Book of Etiquette is a very slim volume. ”

- Paul Theroux

“ When one is polite in German, one lies. ”

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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