Courtesy Quotes - Page 14

• 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

  13 Copy quote

• 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”

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  64 Copy quote

• 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”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  9 Copy quote

• 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

  18 Copy quote

• 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

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  8 Copy quote

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

  Tom Baker

  Giving, Feelings, Common

  12 Copy quote

• 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)

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• little every-day courtesies are called the small change of life; but we should be badly off in trade if we had no small change, and must always deal with twenty-dollar bills; while the small change mounts up to the great sum in a lifetime.

  Julia McNair Wright

  Life Changing, Small Changes, Littles

  Julia McNair Wright (1879). “The Complete Home: an Encyclopædia of Domestic Life and Affairs: The Household in Its Foundation, Order, Economy ... A Volume of Practical Experiences Popularly Illustrated”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Courtesy is breeding. Breeding is an excellent thing. Always remember that.

  Lillian Hellman

  Remember, Excellent, Manners

  13 Copy quote

• Courtesy is not dead - it has merely taken refuge in Great Britain.

  Georges Duhamel

  Taken, British, Britain

  5 Copy quote

• A churlish courtesy rarely comes but either for gain or falsehood.

  Philip Sidney

  Kindness, Gains, Falsehood

  Sir Philip Sidney, Jane Porter (1807). “Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks”, p.106

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Indian is one of Nature's gentlemen--he never says or does a rude or vulgar thing. The vicious, uneducated barbarians, who form the surplus of overpopulous European countries, are far behind the wild man in delicacy of feeling or natural courtesy.

  Susanna Moodie

  Country, Native American, Men

  Susanna Moodie (1852). “Roughing it in the Bush: Or, Life in Canada”, p.11, London : R. Bentley

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• ... woman's cause is the cause of the weak; and when all the weak shall have received their due consideration, then woman will have her "rights," and the Indian will have his rights, and the Negro will have his rights, and all the strong will have learned at last to deal justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly; and our fair land will have been taught the secret of universal courtesy which is after all nothing but the art, the science, and the religion of regarding one's neighbor as one's self, and to do for him as we would, were conditions swapped, that he do for us.

  Anna Julia Cooper

  Art, Strong, Rights

  36 Copy quote

• 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

  4 Copy quote

• When courtesy fails, be nasty, brutish, and short.

  Mason Cooley

  Nasty, Failing

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  26 Copy quote

• Kind words are benedictions. The are not only instruments of power, but of benevolence and courtesy; blessings both to the speaker and hearer of them.

  Arthur Frederick Saunders

  Blessing, Kind, Instruments

  4 Copy quote