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.
Nothing is less important than which fork you use. Etiquette is the science of living. It embraces everything. It is ethics. It is honor.
Any child can be taught to be beautifully behaved with no effort greater than quiet patience and perseverance, whereas to break bad habits once they are acquired is a Herculean task.
If you are hurt, whether in mind or body, don't nurse your bruises. Get up and light-heartedly, courageously, good temperedly get ready for the next encounter. This is the only way to take life - this is also 'playing' the game!
To make a pleasant and friendly impression is not only good manners, but equally good business.
Manners are made up of trivialities of deportment which can be easily learned if one does not happen to know them; manner is personality - the outward manifestation of one's innate character and attitude toward life.... Etiquette must, if it is to be of more than trifling use, include ethics as well as manners. Certainly what one is, is of far greater importance than what one appears to be.
The attributes of a great lady may still be found in the rule of the four S's: Sincerity, Simplicity, Sympathy, and Serenity.
Never think, because you cannot write a letter easily, that it is better not to write at all. The most awkward note imaginable is better than none.
The honor of a gentleman demands the inviolability of his word, and the incorruptibility of his principles. He is the descendent of the knight, the crusader; he is the defender of the defenseless and the champion of justice--or he is not a gentleman.
Houses without personality are a series of walled enclosures with furniture standing around in them. Other houses are filled with things of little intrinsic value, even with much that is shabby and yet they have that inviting atmosphere...
Manner is personality—the outward manifestation of one’s innate character and attitude toward life.
If God had intended for women to wear slacks, He would have constructed them differently.
Manners are like primary colors, there are certain rules and once you have these you merely mix, i.e., adapt, them to meet changing situations.
Never so long as you live, write a letter to a man - no matter who he is - that you would be ashamed to see in a newspaper above your signature.
The joy of joys is the person of light but unmalicious humor. If you know any one who is gay, beguiling and amusing, you will, if you are wise, do everything you can to make him prefer your house and your table to any other; for where he is, the successful party is also.
Custom is a mutable thing; yet we readily recognize the permanence of certain social values. Graciousness and courtesy are never old-fashioned.
A lady never asks a gentleman to dance, or to go to supper with her.
Jealousy is the suspicion of one's own inferiority.
An overdose of praise is like 10 lumps of sugar in coffee; only a very few people can swallow it.
The letter we all love to receive is one that carries so much of the writer’s personality that she seems to be sitting beside us, looking at us directly and talking just as she really would, could she have come on a magic carpet, instead of sending her proxy in ink-made characters on mere paper.
To tell a lie in cowardice, to tell a lie for gain, or to avoid deserved punishment--are all the blackest of black lies.
A gentleman should never take his hat off with a flourish.
Courtesy demands that you, when you are a guest, shall show neither annoyance nor disappointment--no matter what happens.
Excepting a religious ceremonial, there is no occasion where greater dignity of manner is required of ladies and gentlemen both, than in occupying a box at the opera. For a gentleman especially no other etiquette is so exacting.
To tell a lie in cowardice, to tell a lie for gain, or to avoid deserved punishment-are all the blackest of black lies. On the other hand, to teach one to try one's best to avoid the truth-even to press it when necessary toward the outer edge of the rainbow-for a reason of kindness, or of mercy, is far closer to the heart of truth than to repeat something accurately and mercilessly that will cruelly hurt the feelings of someone.
A little praise is not only merest justice but is beyond the purse of no one.
To be a good sportsman, one must be a stoic and never show rancor in defeat, or triumph in victory, or irritation, no matter what annoyance is encountered. One who can not help sulking, or explaining, or protesting when the loser, or exulting when the winner, has no right to take part in games or contests.
The natural impulses of every thoroughbred include his sense of honor; his love of fair play and courage; his dislike of pretense and of cheapness.
Good manners reflect something from inside-an innate sense of consideration for others and respect for self.
Never take more than your share - whether of the road in driving your car, of chairs on a boat or seats on a train, or food at the table.
