Quotes about manners

"Manners are the hypocrisy of a nation."

Balzac, Honore De on manners   

"The English are polite by telling lies. The Americans are polite by telling the truth."

Bradbury, Malcolm on manners   

"Manners are of more importance than laws. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe in."

Burke, Edmund on manners   

"It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice."

Cassis, John on manners
5 fans of this quote   

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

Chesterfield, Lord on manners   

"Manners must adorn knowledge, and smooth its way through the world."

Chesterfield, Lord on manners   

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

Chesterfield, Lord on manners   

"Ceremony is necessary as the outwork and defense of manners."

Chesterfield, Lord on manners   

"We are justified in enforcing good morals, for they belong to all mankind; but we are not justified in enforcing good manners, for good manners always mean our own manners."

Chesterton, Gilbert K. on manners   

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"A man's own manner and character is what most becomes him."

Cicero, Marcus T. on manners   

"Consideration for others is the basic of a good life, a good society."

Confucius on manners
11 fans of this quote   

"Manners are love in a cool climate."

Crisp, Quentin on manners   

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

Cuppy, Will on manners   

"Nowadays, manners are easy and life is hard."

Disraeli, Benjamin on manners   

"If a man has good manners and is not afraid of other people he will get by, even if he is stupid."

Eccles, David on manners   

"Good manners are made up of petty sacrifices."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on manners
3 fans of this quote   

"Manners are the happy way of doing things; each once a stroke of genius or of love --now repeated and hardened into usage. They form at last a rich varnish, with which the routine of life is washed, and its details adorned. If they are superficial, so are the dewdrops which give such depth to the morning meadows."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on manners   

"Manners require time, and nothing is more vulgar than haste."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on manners   

"The basis of good manners is self-reliance."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on manners   

"There are men whose manners have the same essential splendor as the simple and awful sculpture on the friezes of the Parthenon, and the remains of the earliest Greek art."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on manners   

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"Savages we call them because their manners differ from ours."

Franklin, Benjamin on manners
3 fans of this quote   

"Teach your child to hold his tongue; he'll learn fast enough to speak."

Franklin, Benjamin on manners   

"Parents are usually more careful to bestow knowledge on their children rather than virtue, the art of speaking well rather than doing well; but their manners should be of the greatest concern."

Fuller, R. Buckminster on manners   

"Ceremonies are different in every country, but true politeness is everywhere the same."

Goldsmith, Oliver on manners   

"A traveler of taste will notice that the wise are polite all over the world, but the fool only at home."

Goldsmith, Oliver on manners   

"Rudeness is a weak imitation of strength."

Hoffer, Eric on manners
6 fans of this quote   

"Among well bred people a mutual deference is affected, contempt for others is disguised; authority concealed; attention given to each in his turn; and an easy stream of conversation maintained without vehemence, without interruption, without eagerness for victory, and without any airs of superiority."

Hume, David on manners   

"In truth, politeness is artificial good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue."

Jefferson, Thomas on manners   

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"The purpose of polite behavior is never virtuous. Deceit, surrender, and concealment: these are not virtues. The goal of the mannerly is comfort, per se."

Jordan, June on manners
3 fans of this quote   

"Politeness is the flower of humanity."

Joubert, Joseph on manners   

"Politeness makes one appear outwardly as they should be within."

La Bruyere, Jean De on manners   

"It is more comfortable for me, in the long run, to be rude than polite."

Lewis, Wyndham on manners   

"I have always been of the mind that in a democracy manners are the only effective weapons against the bowie-knife."

Lowell, James Russell on manners   

"If you would win the world, melt it, do not hammer it."

Maclaren, Alexander on manners   

"Manners easily and rapidly mature into morals."

Mann, Horace on manners
4 fans of this quote   

"Manners make the person."

Motto on manners   

"It is almost a definition of a gentleman to say that he is one who never inflicts pain."

Newman, John Henry on manners   

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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."

O'Connor, Flannery on manners   

"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."

Post, Emily on manners   

"Nothing is more noble than politeness, and nothing more ridiculous than ceremony."

Proverb on manners