Saturday, March 15, 2008

Manners - christiansquoting.org.uk

ASAP = After Someone Asks Politely.

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

The hardest job kids face today is learning good manners without seeing any. Fred Astaire

It is wise to apply the oil of refined politeness to the mechanism of friendship. - Colette (1873-1954)"The Pure and the Impure," ch. 9, 1933; tr. 1966.

Propriety of manners and consideration for others are the two main characteristics of a gentleman.--Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)

Life is not so short but that there is always time for courtesy. --Ralph Waldo Emerson

Moving parts in rubbing contact require lubrication to avoid excessive wear. Honorifics and formal politeness provide lubrication where people rub together. Often the very young, the untraveled, the naive, the unsophisticated deplore these formalities as "empty," "meaningless," or "dishonest," and scorn to use them. No matter how "pure" their motives, they thereby throw sand into machinery that does not work too well at best. Robert Heinlein

A man's manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait. -- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

When once the forms of civility are violated, there remains little hope of return to kindness or decency.-- Samuel Johnson: Rambler #55

Politeness is one of those advantages which we never estimate rightly but by the inconvenience of its loss.-- Samuel Johnson: Rambler #98

Ideological differences are no excuse for rudeness.Judith Martin (1938-____) "Miss Manner's Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior," 1982.

Allowing an unimportant mistake to pass without comment is a wonderful social grace.Judith Martin (1938-____) United Feature Syndicate.

Civility costs nothing, and buys everything. --Lady M. W. Montague

There was a young girl of Connecticut
Who flagged the express with her pecticut.
Which her elders defined,
As presence of mind,
But deplorable absence of ecticut.
Ogden Nash

This is the final test of a gentleman; his respect for those who can be of no possible service to him.-- William Lyon Phelps

...one might wonder why anyone pays attention to people who are so acerbic in their personal presentation style, as to make it difficult to give them a hearing. - Thomas Roche ( with reference to Gary North)

On a cold winter's day, a group of porcupines huddled together to stay warm and keep from freezing. But soon they felt one another's quills and moved apart. When the need for warmth brought them closer together again, their quills again forced them apart. They were driven back and forth at the mercy of their discomforts until they found the distance from one another that provided both a maximum of warmth and a minimum of pain.In human beings, the emptiness and monotony of isolated self produces a need for society. This brings people together, but their many offensive qualities and intolerable faults drive them apart again. The optimum distance that they finally find and that permits them to coexist is embodied in politeness and good manners. Because of this distance between us, we can only partially satisfy our need for warmth, but at the same time, we are spared the stab of one another's quills.--Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)From _Parerga_, Vol II, 413 (4th edition)

The Australian Book of Etiquette is a very slim volume. -- Paul Theroux, The happy isles of Oceania. Paddling the Pacific

Good manners will open doors that the best education cannot. - Clarence Thomas (1948 &endash; )

To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered. Voltaire

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