Courtesy Quotes - Page 13

• In The Tricky Art of Co-Existing, Sandi Toksvig navigates life's little dilemmas with wit and not-so-common sense. You'll learn the strange history of common courtesy and the one true secret of social success: how to not drive everyone around you crazy.

  William Poundstone

  Art, Crazy, Common Sense

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• The characteristic of a well-bred man is, to converse with his inferiors without insolence, and with his superiors with respect and with ease.

  Doug Stanhope

  Respect, Men, Ease

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• People who treat waitresses or waiters rudely - or taxi drivers - I have very little tolerance for those people. They work really hard. They deserve courtesy and respect.

  Chloe Sevigny

  People, Tolerance, Waitress

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• What does competency in the long run mean? It means to all reasonable beings, cleanliness of person, decency of dress, courtesy of manners, opportunities for education, the delights of leisure, and the bliss of giving.

  Edwin Percy Whipple

  Running, Mean, Opportunity

  Edwin Percy Whipple (1875). “Success and Its Conditions”, p.293

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• O, when the heart is, full, when bitter thoughts come crowding thickly up for utterance, and the poor common words of courtesy are such a very mockery, how much the bursting heart may pour itself in prayer!

  Nathaniel Parker Willis

  Prayer, Heart, Utterance

  Nathaniel Parker Willis, Henry Llewellyn Williams (1832). “Poems of Nathaniel Parker Willis ...”, p.36

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• To bring the best human qualities to anything like perfection, to fill them with the sweet juices of courtesy and charity, prosperity, or, at all events, a moderate amount of it, is required,--just as sunshine is needed for the ripening of peaches and apricots.

  Alexander Smith

  Sweet, Sunshine, Perfection

  Alexander Smith (1866). “Miss Oona McQuarrie: A sequel to Alfred Hagart's household”, p.116

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• In thy discourse, if thou desire to please;
  All such is courteous, useful, new, or wittie:
  Usefulness comes by labour, wit byease;
  Courtesie grows in court; news in the citie.

  George Herbert

  Desire, News, Wit

  George Herbert (1861). “The Poetical Works of G. H. and R. Heber. With Memoir”, p.9

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• War, even in the best state of an army, with all the alleviations of courtesy and honor, with all the correctives of morality and religion, is nevertheless so great an evil, that to engage in it without a clear necessity is a crime of the blackest dye. When the necessity is clear, it then becomes a crime to shrink from it.

  Robert Southey

  War, Army, Evil

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• A thankful man owes a courtesy ever; the unthankful but when he needs it.

  Ben Jonson

  Gratitude, Men, Needs

  Ben Jonson (1995). “Poetaster”, p.62, Manchester University Press

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• Curiosity in Rome is a form of courtesy.

  Elizabeth Bowen

  Rome, Curiosity, Form

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• The only occasion when the traditions of courtesy permit a hostess to help herself before a woman guest is when she has reason to believe the food is poisoned.

  Emily Post

  Believe, Guests, Helping

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• Custom is a mutable thing; yet we readily recognize the permanence of certain social values. Graciousness and courtesy are never old-fashioned.

  Emily Post

  Social Values, Manners, Certain

  Emily Post (1960). “Etiquette: the blue book of social usage”

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• All legislation, all government, all society is founded upon the principle of mutual concession, politeness, comity, courtesy; upon these everything is based...Let him who elevates himself above humanity, above its weaknesses, its infirmities, its wants, its necessities, say, if he pleases, I will never compromise; but let no one who is not above the frailties of our common nature disdain compromises.

  Henry Clay

  Government, Humanity, Weakness

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• Courtesy is fine and heaven knows we need more and more of it in a rude and frenetic world, but mechanized courtesy is as pallid as Pablum ... in fact, it isn't even courtesy.

  Cornelia Otis Skinner

  Rude, Heaven, Facts

  Cornelia Otis Skinner (1959). “The Ape in Me”

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• perhaps there is something more than courtesy behind the dissembling reticence of childhood. ... Most artists dislike having their incomplete work considered and discussed and this analogy, I think, is valid. The child is incomplete, too, and is constantly experimenting as he seeks his own style of thought and feeling.

  Dervla Murphy

  Children, Thinking, Artist

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• How easy it is for generous sentiments, high courtesy, and chivalrous courage to lose their influence beneath the chilling blight of selfishness, and to exhibit to the world a man who was great in all the minor attributes of character, but who was found wanting when it became necessary to prove how much principle is superior to policy.

  James F. Cooper

  Character, Men, Selfishness

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• I have a friend, physically magnificent, who combines within himself the intellect of a philosopher, the diplomacy of a statesman, the executive ability of the general of an army, the courtesy of a Chesterfield - and the emotions of a rabbit.

  Myrtle Reed

  Army, Personality, Rabbits

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• It may be too much to expect that nations should be governed in their relations towards each other by the precepts of Christian morality, but surely it is not too much to ask that they should conform to the code of courtesy and good breeding recognized among gentlemen in the intercourse of social life.

  George Stillman Hillard

  Christian, Gentleman, Too Much

  George Stillman Hillard “Life and Campaigns of George B. McClellan, Major-General, U. S. Army”, Charles River Editors

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• Debates must take place in an atmosphere of courtesy.

  John Allen Fraser

  Atmosphere, Debate

  John Allen Fraser (1993). “The House of Commons at Work”, Montréal : Éditions de la Chenelière

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• It was in India that I started my acting career, courtesy of my parents, long before I set foot on stage in England. They headed a company of travelling players performing Shakespeare up and down the land.

  Felicity Kendal

  Player, Land, Careers

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• The thorny point
  Of bare distress hath ta'en from me the show
  Of smooth civility; yet am I inland bred
  And know some nurture.

  William Shakespeare

  Civility, Smooth, Nurture

  William Shakespeare, Cynthia Marshall (2004). “As You Like It”, p.163, Cambridge University Press

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• Our lives are fed by kind words and gracious behavior. We are nourished by expressions like 'excuse me', and other such simple courtesies.

  Bill Vaughan

  Simple, Expression, Kind

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• Respect is more than giving consideration of one's feelings. It is showing common courtesy for another human being.

  Tom Baker

  Giving, Feelings, Common

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• I once knew a man out of courtesy help a lame dog over a stile, and he for requital bit his fingers.

  William Chillingworth

  Dog, Men, Lame

  'The Religion of Protestants' (1637)

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• none but the estimable shall hear from me that I esteem them. The whole world is entitled to my courtesy, but greater tribute than that must be earned through virtuous acts.

  Sophie von La Roche

  World, Admiration, Tribute

  Sophie von La Roche (1991). “The History of Lady Sophia Sternheim: Extracted by a Woman Friend of the Same from Original Documents and Other Reliable Sources”, p.135, SUNY Press

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