Courtesy Quotes - Page 2

• Hail! the small courtesies of life, for smooth do ye make the road of it, like grace and beauty, which beget inclinations to love at first sight; it is ye who open the door and let the stranger in.

  Laurence Sterne

  Sight, Doors, Grace

  Laurence Sterne (1873). “The Works of Laurence Sterne with a Life of the Author Written by Himself”, p.330

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• Nay, I am the very pink of courtesy.

  William Shakespeare

  Romeo And Juliet Play

  'Romeo And Juliet' (1595) act 2, sc. 4, l. [63]

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• 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

  Real, Humor, Want

  Thomas Jefferson (1977). “The Portable Thomas Jefferson”, p.407, Penguin

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• Courtesies cannot be borrowed like snow shovels; you must have some of your own.

  John Wanamaker

  Snow, Shovels, Borrowed

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• Men, like bullets, go farthest when they are smoothest.

  Jean Paul

  Reality, Men, Literature

  Jean Paul (1862). “Titan: A Romance”, p.156

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• There is a courtesy of the heart; it is allied to love. From its springs the purest courtesy in the outward behavior.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Love, Spring, Heart

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  Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence.

  George Washington

  Friendship, Best Friend, Confidence

  George Washington (1852). “The Life of General Washington: First President of the United States”, p.94

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• Life is not so short but that there is always time enough for courtesy.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Life, Time, Kindness

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2010). “Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Volume VIII: Letters and Social Aims”, p.46, Harvard University Press

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• A moral, sensible, and well-bred manWill not affront me, and no other can.

  William Cowper

  Moral, Manners, Affront

  William Cowper, “Conversation”

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• The American Dream, coupled with government subsidies of utilities and cheap consumer goods courtesy of slave labour somewhere else, has kept the poor huddled masses from rising up.

  Elizabeth Wurtzel

  Dream, Government, Somewhere Else

  "America, land of the free to be stupid" by Elizabeth Wurtzel, www.theguardian.com. November 5, 2010.

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• Be not niggardly of what costs thee nothing, as courtesy, counsel, & countenance.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Cost, Thee, Poor Richard

  Benjamin Franklin (2004). “Poor Richard's Almanack”, p.71, Barnes & Noble Publishing

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• I have very poor and unhappy brains for drinking: I could well wish courtesy would invent some other custom of entertainment.

  William Shakespeare

  Drinking, Alcohol, Brain

  'Othello' (1602-4) act 2, sc. 3, l. [34]

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• There is something more - the spirit, or the soul. I think that that quality encourages our courtesy and care and our minds. And mercy, and identity.

  Maya Angelou

  Thinking, Soul, Mind

  "Visions: Maya Angelou". Interview With Ken Kelley, www.motherjones.com. May/June 1995.

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• How sweet and gracious, even in common speech, Is that fine sense which men call Courtesy! Wholesome as air and genial as the light, Welcome in every clime as breath of flowers, It transmutes aliens into trusting friends, And gives its owner passport round the globe.

  James Thomas Fields

  Sweet, Flower, Men

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• The whole of heraldry and of chivalry is in courtesy. A man of fine manners shall pronounce your name with all the ornament that titles of nobility could ever add.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Names, Titles

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, David Mikics (2012). “The Annotated Emerson”, p.147, Harvard University Press

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• The first point of courtesy must always be truth.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Firsts, Manners

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2015). “Ralph Waldo Emerson: Essays: First and Second Series”, p.330, Library of America

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• Courtesy is the politic witchery of great personages.

  Baltasar Gracian

  Manners, Great Person, Witchery

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• Be calm in arguing; for fierceness makes error a fault, and truth discourtesy.

  George Herbert

  Truth, Errors, Faults

  Jeremy Taylor, John Wheeldon, George Herbert (1768). “Sacred Prolusions: Or, Select Pieces from Bishop Taylor and Mr. Herbert. By the Rev. John Wheeldon, ... With a Preface and a Discourse on Rev.xviii. 21. By the Editor”, p.107

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• Courtesy is only a thin veneer on the general selfishness.

  Honore de Balzac

  Selfishness, Veneer

  Honore de Balzac (2011). “Letters of Two Brides”, p.58, The Floating Press

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• Friends, near or far, are important to us. All of ours have an awareness of other persons' feelings, a courtesy that's inevitable. When I find that consideration in a fan, I'm immediately impressed.

  Kent McCord

  Feelings, Important, Fans

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• All places where women are excluded tend downward to barbarism; but the moment she is introduced, there come in with her courtesy, cleanliness, sobriety, and order.

  Harriet Beecher Stowe

  Order, Sobriety, Moments

  Harriet Beecher Stowe (1868). “The Chimney-corner”, p.32

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• There is a kind of courtesy in skepticism. It would be an offense against polite conventions to press our doubts too far.

  George Santayana

  Doubt, Atheism, Would Be

  George Santayana (1950). “Atoms of Thought: An Anthology of Thoughts”

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• The courtesy which most becomes a victor was denied to Germany for a long time.

  Gustav Stresemann

  Long, Germany, Denied

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• I have often seen people uncivil by too much civility, and tiresome in their courtesy.

  Michel de Montaigne

  People, Too Much, Civility

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• There can be no defence like elaborate courtesy.

  E. V. Lucas

  Manners, Defence, Courtesy Manners

  1932 Reading,Writing and Remembering, ch.8.

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