Politeness Quotes - Page 8

• The almost Oriental politeness of the West Coast is one of its distinctive regional features, in marked contrast to the contentiousness of the East Coast.... So few human contacts in Los Angeles go unmediated by glass (either a TV screen or an automobile windshield), that the direct confrontation renders the participants docile, stunned, sweet.

  Edmund White

  Sweet, Glasses, West

  Edmund White (2014). “States of Desire Revisited: Travels in Gay America”, p.1, University of Wisconsin Pres

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Tact, the kind of tact you should cultivate, is not a form of deception or make-believe, but a cultivated taste which gives fine perception in seeing and doing what is best under all circumstances. There is nothing which will so readily bring you into favor, or disarm an opponent, as the right use of tact.

  Grenville Kleiser

  Believe, Giving, Deception

  6 Copy quote

• Be sure, when you think you are being extremely tactful, that you are not in reality running away from something you ought to face.

  Frank Medlicott

  Running, Reality, Thinking

  4 Copy quote

• True politeness is perfect ease and freedom. It simply consists in treating others just as you love to be treated yourself.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Perfect, Treating Others, Ease

  4 Copy quote

• Nothing is more dissimilar than natural and acquired politeness. The first consists in a willing abnegation of self; the second in a compelled recollection of others.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Self, Firsts, Natural

  4 Copy quote

• I still do find it very difficult in the West to connect to this politeness of smiling, not saying how you're thinking or not saying how you really feel.

  Waris Dirie

  Thinking, West, Difficult

  9 Copy quote

• I think that helps because there has been no formality of friendship, the politeness of friendship, so we can just work directly on the work that's ahead of us [with Tom Hardey].

  Steven Knight

  Thinking, Helping, Has Beens

  Source: deadline.com

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• If you did go to high school and then college, there's definitely a solidarity with someone that is from your hometown and knows your mom, and all that stuff. There's this weird politeness that we have, as a society. You don't want to make it hard for anybody.

  John Krasinski

  Mom, School, College

  "Ginnifer Goodwin and John Krasinski Interview SOMETHING BORROWED". Interview with Christina Radish, collider.com. May 4, 2011.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Kindly politeness is the slow fruit of advanced reflection; it is a sort of humanity and kindliness applied to small acts and every day discourse: it bids man soften towards others, and forget himself for the sake of others: it constrains genuine nature, which is selfish and gross.

  Hippolyte Taine

  Selfish, Reflection, Men

  Hippolyte Taine (1904). “History of English literature”

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is because gold is rare that gilding has been invented, which, without having its solidity, has all its brilliancy. Thus, to replace the kindness we lack, we have devised politeness which has all its appearance.

  Francis de Gaston, Chevalier de Levis

  Kindness, Gold, Appearance

  6 Copy quote

• Christian piety annihilates the egoism of the heart; worldly politeness veils and represses it.

  Blaise Pascal

  Christian, Heart, Veils

  8 Copy quote

• Politeness, however, acts the lady's maid to our thoughts; and they are washed, dressed, curled, rouged, and perfumed, before they are presented to the public.

  Letitia Elizabeth Landon

  Maids, Manners, Our Thoughts

  Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1852). “Romance and reality”, p.266

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I hate being moved. I hate that man who came in. So self-righteous, so cruel. He made fun of me, that's why I cried. You never did that. You led me into temptation by your - politeness.

  Peter Ustinov

  Fun, Hate, Men

  "The Loser: A Novel". Book by Peter Ustinov, 1960.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Our morality seems to be only a check on the ultimate domination of force, just as our politeness is a check on the impulse of every pig to put his feet in the trough.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

  Pigs, Feet, Morality

  4 Copy quote

• My father believed in toughness, honesty, politeness and being on time. All very important lessons.

  Roger Moore

  Honesty, Father, Important

  "Roger Moore: My family values". Interview with Nick McGrath, www.theguardian.com. September 28, 2012.

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is a time for politeness and there is a time when you are obliged to be rude.

  Daniel Dennett

  Rude, Obliged

  11 Copy quote

• The soul of politeness is not a question of rules but of tranquility, humility, and simplicity. And in the taking of tea it finds perhaps its most perfect expression.

  Dorothea Johnson

  Humility, Expression, Perfect

  Dorothea Johnson (2002). “Tea and Etiquette”, p.43, Capital Books

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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 untravelled, the naive, the sophisticated 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 A. Heinlein

  Moving, People, Together

  10 Copy quote

• Civility means a great deal more than just being nice to one another. It is complex and encompasses learning how to connect successfully and live well with others, developing thoughtfulness, and fostering effective self-expression and communication. Civility includes courtesy, politeness, mutual respect, fairness, good manners, as well as a matter of good health. Taking an active interest in the well-being of our community and concern for the health of our society is also involved in civility.

  P. M. Forni

  Respect, Nice, Communication

  "Einstein Was a Mensch" by David Sable, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 21, 2013.

  96 Copy quote

  Show source

• I am still amazed at the amount of Christian charity [Wellesley] stuck us all with, a kind of glazed politeness in the face of boredom and stupidity. Tolerance, in the worst sense of the word. How marvelous it would have been to go to a women's college that encouraged impoliteness, that rewarded aggression, that encouraged argument.

  Nora Ephron

  Christian, College, Boredom

  Nora Ephron (2012). “Crazy Salad and Scribble Scribble: Some Things About Women and Notes on Media”, p.45, Vintage

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• During a long and varied career as a bachelor, dear spouse [mock platform manner], I have noticed that marriage is usually the death of politeness between a man and a woman.

  Arnold Bennett

  Marriage, Men, Careers

  "The Honeymoon: A Comedy in Three Acts".

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The very essence of politeness seems to be to take care that by our words and actions we make other people pleased with us as well as with themselves.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Essence, People, Our Words

  "Characters: Of Society and Conversation #32", 1688.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is said that the Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving picaninnies; and one can imagine that Blair, twice victor abroad but enmired at home, is similarly seduced by foreign politeness. They say he is shortly off to the Congo. No doubt the AK47s will fall silent, and the pangas will stop their hacking of human flesh, and the tribal warriors will all break out in Watermelon smiles to see the big white chief touch down in his big white British taxpayer-funded bird.

  Boris Johnson

  Queens, Cheer, Fall

  Daily Telegraph, January 10, 2002.

  33 Copy quote

  Show source

• If a thing is old, it is a sign that it was fit to live. Old families, old customs, old styles survive because they are fit to survive. The guarantee of continuity is quality. Submerge the good in a flood of the new, and good will come back to join the good which the new brings with it. Old-fashioned hospitality, old-fashioned politeness, old-fashioned honor in business had qualities of survival. These will come back.

  Eddie Rickenbacker

  Business, Style, Survival

  39 Copy quote

• One of the things I discovered in Japan was from watching sumo wrestling. At the end you can never tell who has won the fight, and who has lost, because they do not show their emotion because it could embarrass the loser. It is unbelievable. That is why I try to teach my team politeness. It is only here in England that everybody pokes their tongue out when they win.

  Arsene Wenger

  Soccer, Team, Wrestling

  15 Copy quote