Sayings about Manners
Learn good manners from those who don’t have them. ~ Iranian Proverbs
When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live you life in a manner so that when you die the world cries and you rejoice. ~ American Proverbs
If ye had as little money as ye have manners, ye would be the poorest man of all your kin. ~ Scottish Proverbs
People count up the faults of those who keep them waiting. ~ French Proverbs
Good manners can be paid for with compliments, but only the sound of money will pay your debts. ~ Chinese Proverb
Treat your superior as a father, your equal as a brother, and your inferior as a son. ~ Persian Proverb
A well mannered man does not step on the shadow of his fellow man. ~ Chinese Proverb
Quotations about Manners
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. ~ June Jordan
Says the rude child: “No, I won’t do it.” Says the courteous grown-up: “Yes, I won’t do it.” ~ Mignon McLaughlin
Manners must adorn knowledge, and smooth its way through the world. ~ Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield
Treat everyone with politeness, even those who are rude to you — not because they are nice, but because you are. ~ Author UnknownGood manners: The noise you don’t make when you’re eating soup. ~ Bennett Cerf
Treat people as you would like to be treated. Karma’s only a bitch if you are. ~ Author Unknown
Manners are not idle, but the fruit of loyal nature, and of noble mind. ~ Lord Alfred Tennyson
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. ~ R. Buckminster Fuller
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. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
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. ~ Thomas Jefferson
Life be not so short but that there is always time for courtesy. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Manners require time, and nothing is more vulgar than haste. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
I have always been of the mind that in a democracy, manners are the only effective weapons against the bowie-knife. ~ James Russell Lowell
Manners are like the shadows of virtues, they are the momentary display of those qualities which our fellow creatures love and respect. ~ Sydney Smith
Good manners are made up of petty sacrifices. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Many who would not take the last cookie would take the last lifeboat. ~ Mignon McLaughlin
Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter which fork you use. ~ Emily Post
A man’s own manner and character is what most becomes him. ~ Marcus T. Cicero
Manners are the hypocrisy of a nation. ~ Honore De Balzac
Etiquette means behaving yourself a little better than is absolutely essential. ~ Will Cuppy
Nothing is so great an example of bad manners as flattery. If you flatter all the company, you please none; If you flatter only one or two, you offend the rest. ~ Jonathan Swift
Manners easily and rapidly mature into morals. ~ Horace Mann
Manners are love in a cool climate. ~ Quentin Crisp
Discretion is being able to raise your eyebrow instead of your voice. ~ Author unknown
Manners are the happy way of doing things. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
A man’s own good breeding is the best security against other people’s ill manners. ~ Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield
A man that should call everything by its right name would hardly pass the streets without being knocked down as a common enemy. ~ Lord Halifax
Savages we call them because their manners differ from ours. ~ Benjamin Franklin
If you would win the world, melt it, do not hammer it. ~ Alexander Maclaren
The basis of good manners is self-reliance. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
There can be no defence like elaborate courtesy. ~ E.V. Lucas
Is man a savage at heart, skinned o’er with fragile Manners? Or is savagery but a faint taint in the natural man’s gentility, which erupts now and again like pimples on an angel’s arse? ~ John Barth
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. ~ Edmund Burke
Good manners are just a way of showing other people that we have respect for them. ~ Bill Kelly
The test of good manners is to be patient with bad ones. ~ Ibn Gabirol
I don’t think you want too much sincerity in society. It would be like an iron girder in a house of cards. ~ W. Somerset Maugham
Consideration for others is the basic of a good life, a good society. ~ Confucius
Hospitality is making your guests feel at home, even if you wish they were. ~ Author Unknown
Never be late. When you’re late, what you’re saying is that your time is more important than the other person’s time. That’s pretty egotistical. ~ Alice Cooper
Ceremony is necessary as the outwork and defense of manners. ~ Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield
What once were vices are manners now. ~ Marcus Annaeus Seneca
Nowadays, manners are easy and life is hard. ~ Benjamin Disraeli
The test of good manners is to be patient with bad ones. ~ Gabirol
Courtesies cannot be borrowed like snow shovels; you must have some of your own. ~ John Wanamaker
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. ~ Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield
Manhood is melted into courtesies, valor into compliment, and men are only turned into tongue, and trim ones, too. ~ William Shakespeare
A person will gain everyone’s approval if he mixes the pleasant with the useful. ~ Horace
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. ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton
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. ~ Flannery O’Connor
Whoever one is, and wherever one is, one is always in the wrong if one is rude. ~ Maurice Baring
Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners. ~ Author Unknown
A man’s manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait. ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Good manners can replace morals. It may be years before anyone knows if what you are doing is right. But if what you are doing is nice, it will be immediately evident. ~ P.J. O’Rourke
When you want to get your way, simply try being mannerly. It’s become so rare nowadays that it disarms people. It throws them off balance. Don’t think of it as merely being nice; rather, consider it “civil” war. ~ Joe Kita
A traveler of taste will notice that the wise are polite all over the world, but the fool only at home. ~ Oliver Goldsmith
If a man has good manners and is not afraid of other people he will get by, even if he is stupid. ~ David Eccles
Teach your child to hold his tongue; he’ll learn fast enough to speak. ~ Benjamin Franklin
Learn young about hard work and manners — and you’ll be through the whole dirty mess and nicely dead again before you know it. ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald
Good Manners: What to Say and Do (Polite English)~ Video