Etiquette Quotes

It is ill-manners to silence a fool and cruelty to let him go on

Whoever makes the fewest persons uneasy, is the best bred man in company.

A true gentleman is one who is never intentionally rude.

There are times when you get frustrated, but the one thing you always focus on is treating people well. You just cannot storm off and freak out.

Don't be so concerned with your rights that you forget your manners.

If you recognize anyone it does not mean you like them.

My mother always told me it wasn't polite to ask what people make.

If you get into the endzone, act as if you've been there before.

Give not advice without being asked, and when desired, do it briefly.

My daughter always behaved in restaurants. And if she didn't, she's going out. I mean, one of the parents is going to take her outside. Immediately.

How you can sit there, calmly eating muffins when we are in this horrible trouble, I can’t make out. You seem to me to be perfectly heartless." "Well, I can’t eat muffins in an agitated manner. The butter would probably get on my cuffs. One should always eat muffins quite calmly. It is the only way to eat them." "I say it’s perfectly heartless your eating muffins at all, under the circumstances.

The art of conversation, or the qualification for a good companion, is a certain self-control, which now holds the subject, now lets it go, with a respect for the emergencies of the moment.

It is always a practical difficulty with clubs to regulate the laws of election so as to exclude peremptorily every social nuisance. Nobody wishes bad manners. We must have loyalty and character.

Without an acquaintance with the rules of propriety, it is impossible for the character to be established

You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.

A reader is doubly guilty of bad manners against an author when he praises his second book at the expense of his first (or vice versa) and then expects the author to be grateful for what he has done.

Speak in such a way that others love to listen to you. Listen in such a way that others love to speak to you.

Most dear actors, eat no onions nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath.

My friend said to me, You know what I like? Mashed potatoes. I was like, Dude, you have to give me time to guess. If you're going to quiz me you have to insert a pause.

A gentleman never offends unintentionally

How to Drink Like a Gentleman: The Things to Do and the Things Not To, as Learned in 30 Years' Extensive Research.

The worst thing to do with success, is to boast about it.

Well, another senator rose and said {as they always do} 'Does the gentleman yield?' They always say that - least they call each other 'gentleman' in there. But the tone they put on the word, it would sound more appropriate if they came right out and said 'Would the coyote from Maine yield?' 'cause that's about the way it sounds. Well, then, the other senator says 'I yield' (for if he don't the other guy'll keep on talking anyhow). So the coyote from Maine says 'I yield to...the polecat from Oregon!'

If one hears bad music, it is one's duty to drown it by one's conversation.

None but the well-bred man knows how to confess a fault, or acknowledge himself in an error.

You kiss by th' book.

I believe it is customary in good society to take some slight refreshment at five o'clock.

Be sincere; be brief; be seated.

To be humble to superiors is a duty, to equals courtesy, to inferiors nobleness.

I encourage courtesy. To accept nothing less than courtesy, and to give nothing less than courtesy.

If I'm out to dinner with a group of friends, and somebody offers to pay for the check, I immediately reach for my wallet. Inside is a note that says, "Say thanks!"

Good manners is the art of making those people easy with whom we converse. Whoever makes the fewest people uneasy is the best bred in the room.

I admire vegetarians who refuse to eat nothing but vegetables in their homes, but I also admire those who put aside those principles or those preferences when they travel. Just to be a good guest.

I must decline your invitation owing to a subsequent engagement.

Though laughter is allowable, a horse-laugh is abominable.

I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.

Remember that how you say something is as important as what you say.

One should always eat muffins quite calmly. It is the only way to eat them.

Fine manners need the support of fine manners in others.

It is in bad taste," is the most formidable word an Englishman can pronounce.

The well bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves.

The foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing...is a vice so mean and low, without any temptation, that every man of sense and character detests and despises it.

A gentleman is someone who knows how to play the banjo and doesn't.

When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.

When one pays a visit it is for the purpose of wasting other people's time, not one's own.

People who ask "Can I ask you a question?" Didn't really give me a choice, did ya there buddy?

Remember what is unbecoming to do is also unbecoming to speak of.

Conversation should be pleasant without scurrility, witty without affectation, free without indecency, learned without conceitedness, novel without falsehood.

Sleep not when others speak, sit not when others stand, speak not when you should hold your peace, walk not when others stop.

It is very vulgar to talk about one's own business. Only people like stockbrokers do that, and then only at dinner parties.

You must not pay a person a compliment, and then straightway follow it with a criticism.

The habit of attending to small things and of appreciating small courtesies is one of the important marks of a good person.

I have criticized absent people so often, and then discovered, to my humiliation, that I was talking with their relatives, that I have grown superstitious about that sort of thing and dropped it.

Do not spit gum in the drinking fountains.

Straight-forwardness, without the rules of propriety, becomes rudeness.

Nothing is so great an instance of ill-manners as flattery.

Nothing annoys people so much as not receiving invitations.

He is not well bred, that cannot bear ill breeding in others

... Take another glass of wine, and excuse my mentioning that society as a body does not expect one to be so strictly conscientious in emptying one's glass, as to turn it bottom upwards with the rim on one's nose.

For a host, above all, must be kind to his guests.