Good Breeding Quotes - Page 2

• It is good breeding alone that can prepossess people in your favor at first sight, more time being necessary to discover greater talents.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Sight, People, Favors

  Lord Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope Earl of Chesterfield (1855). “The Works of Lord Chesterfield: Including His Letters to His Son, Etc : to which is Prefixed, an Original Life of the Author”, p.127

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• One may know a man that never conversed in the world, by his excess of good-breeding.

  Joseph Addison

  Men, Excess, World

  Joseph Addison, Richard Steele (1853). “The Spectator”, p.380

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• It has been said that true religion will make a man a more thorough gentleman than all the courts in Europe. And it is true that you may see simple laboring men as thorough gentlemen as any duke, simply because they have learned to fear God; and, fearing him, to restrain themselves, which is the very root and essence of all good breeding.

  Charles Kingsley

  Simple, Men, Europe

  Charles Kingsley (2008). “The Gospel of the Pentateuch: A Set of Parish Sermons: Easyread Large Bold Edition”, p.59, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• While the proximate ground of discrimination may be of another kind, still the pervading principle and abiding test of good breeding is the requirement of a substantial and patent waste of time.

  Thorstein Veblen

  Principles, Abiding, Patents

  Thorstein Veblen (1993). “A Veblen Treasury: From Leisure Class to War, Peace, and Capitalism”, p.31, M.E. Sharpe

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• This laudable quality is commonly known by the name of Manners and Good-breeding, and consists in a Fashionable Habit, acquir'd by Precept and Example, of flattering the Pride and Selfishness of others, and concealing our own with Judgment and Dexterity.

  Bernard de Mandeville

  Pride, Names, Quality

  Bernard de Mandeville (1723). “The Fable of the Bees”, p.37, Jazzybee Verlag

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• In civilized life, where the happiness, and indeed almost the existence, of man depends so much upon the opinion of his fellow-men, he is constantly acting a studied part. The bold and peculiar traits of native character are refined away or softened down by the levelling influence of what is termed good-breeding, and he practises so many petty deceptions and affects so many generous sentiments for the purposes of popularity that it is difficult to distinguish his real from his artificial character.

  Washington Irving

  Real, Character, Men

  Washington Irving (2015). “The Complete Short Stories of Washington Irving: The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Bracebridge Hall, Tales of a Traveler, The Alhambra, Woolfert’s Roost & The Crayon Papers Collections (Illustrated): The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle, Old Christmas, The Voyage, Roscoe, The Widow’s Retinue, An Old Soldier, Mountjoy, Don Juan, Woolfert’s Roost, Tales of The Alhambra and many more”, p.383, e-artnow

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• By nature servile, people attempt at first glance to find signs of good breeding in the appearance of those who occupy more exalted stations.

  Anton Chekhov

  People, Firsts, Appearance

  "A Trivial Incident". Short story by Anton Chekhov, 1886.

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• There are two kinds of beauty, one being of the soul and the other of the body, That of the soul is revealed through intelligence, modesty, right conduct, Generosity and good breeding, all of which qualities may exist in an ugly man; And when one's gaze is fixed upon beauty of this sort and not upon that of the body, Love is usually born suddenly and violently.

  Miguel de Cervantes

  Love Is, Men, Two

  Miguel de Cervantes (2000). “Don Quixote”, p.1050, Modern Library

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• The Pantechnicon stored and distributed a good deal of furniture as well. The very idea of a lady of good breeding visiting such a place. There would be tables lying about, on their sides, naked! Not to mention flaccid dirigibles! Alexia shuddered at the very idea.

  Gail Carriger

  Lying, Ideas, Naked

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• Insofar as he'd formed any opinion of her, it was that she suffered from misplaced gentility and the mistaken belief that etiquette meant good breeding. She mistook mannerisms for manners.

  Terry Pratchett

  Belief, Opinion, Manners

  Terry Pratchett (2008). “The Truth: (Discworld Novel 25)”, p.87, Random House

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• The most familiar and intimate habitudes, connections, friendships, require a degree of good-breeding both to preserve and cement them.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Friendship, Degrees, Connections

  Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.174, Oxford University Press

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• Good-breeding carries along with it a dignity that is respected by the most petulant. Ill-breeding invites and authorizes the familiarity of the most timid.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Dignity, Breeding, Ill

  Lord Chesterfield (2008). “The Modern Chesterfield”, p.250, Wildside Press LLC

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• The Fashionable World is grown free and easie; our Manners sit more loose upon us: Nothing is so modish as an agreeable Negligence. In a word, Good Breeding shows it self most, where to an ordinary Eye it appears the least.

  Joseph Addison

  Eye, Self, Ordinary

  Joseph Addison (1712). “The Spectator”, p.196

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• There are few defects in our nature so glaring as not to be veiled from observation by politeness and good-breeding.

  Stanisław I Leszczyński

  Breeding, Observation, Politeness

  François duc de La Rochefoucauld, Stanisław I Leszczyński (King of Poland) (1851). “Moral Reflections, Sentences and Maxims of Francis, Duc de la Rochefoucauld”, p.179

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• No rent-roll nor army-list can dignify skulking and dissimulation: and the first point of courtesy must always be truth, as really all the forms of good-breeding point that way.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Army, Way, Firsts

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2000). “Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson: (A Modern Library E-Book)”, p.432, Modern Library

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• So is the English Parliament provincial. Mere country bumpkins, they betray themselves, when any more important question arises for them to settle, the Irish question, for instance,--the English question why did I not say? Their natures are subdued to what they work in. Their "good breeding" respects only secondary objects.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Country, Important, Settling

  Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.224, Graphic Arts Books

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• It is easy to distinguish between the joking that reflects good breeding and that which is coarse-the one, if aired at an apposite moment of mental relaxation, is becoming in the most serious of men, whereas the other is unworthy of any free person, if the content is indecent or the expression obscene.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Men, Expression, Relaxation

  Marcus Tullius Cicero, Patrick Gerard Walsh (2000). “On Obligations”, p.36, Oxford University Press, USA

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• Compliments of congratulation are always kindly taken, and cost nothing but pen, ink and paper. I consider them as draughts upon good breeding, where the exchange is always greatly in favor of the drawer.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Congratulations, Taken, Ink And Paper

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• You must labour to acquire that great and uncommon talent of hating with good breeding, and loving with prudence; to make no quarrel irreconcilable by silly and unnecessary indications of anger; and no friendship dangerous, in care it breaks, by a wanton, indiscreet, and unreserved confidence.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Love, Hate, Silly

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• Women of fashion and character--I do not mean absolutely unblemished--are a necessary ingredient in the composition of good company; the attention which they require, and which is always paid them by well-bred men, keeps up politeness, and gives a habit of good-breeding; whereas men, when they live together without the lenitive of women in company, are apt to grow careless, negligent, and rough among one another.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Fashion, Character, Mean

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• Fashion understands itself; good-breeding and personal superiority of whatever country readily fraternize with those of every other. The chiefs of savage tribes have distinguished themselves in London and Paris, by the purity of their tournure.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Leadership, Country, Fashion

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2015). “Essays”, p.44, Xist Publishing

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• Civility, which is a disposition to accommodate and oblige others, is essentially the same in every country; but good breeding, asit is called, which is the manner of exerting that disposition, is different in almost every country, and merely local; and every man of sense imitates and conforms to that local good breeding of the place which he is at.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Country, Men, Different

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• Nothing can constitute good-breeding that has not good-nature for its foundation.

  Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

  Foundation, Breeding, Good Nature

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• The religion of England is part of good-breeding. When you see on the continent the well-dressed Englishman come into his ambassador's chapel and put his face for silent prayer into his smooth-brushed hat, you cannot help feeling how much national pride prays with him, and the religion of a gentleman.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Prayer, Pride, Feelings

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.359, Penguin

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• There is no society or conversation to be kept up in the world without good-nature, or something which must bear its appearance and supply its place. For this reason mankind have been forced to invent a kind of artificial humanity, which is what we express by the word Good-Breeding.

  Joseph Addison

  Humanity, World, Bears

  Joseph Addison (1729). “The spectator”, p.322

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