Politeness Quotes - Page 8

• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• Not to perceive the little weaknesses and the idle but innocent affectations of the company may be allowable as a sort of polite duty. The company will be pleased with you if you do, and most probably will not be reformed by you if you do not.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Weakness, May, Littles

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• 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

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• 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

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

  Blaise Pascal

  Christian, Heart, Veils

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• 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

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• 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”

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• 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.

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• 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

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• 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.

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• 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

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• Ultimately, 'how's it going?' is the most futile and the most profound of questions. To answer it precisely, one would have to make a scrupulous inventory of one's psyche, considering each aspect in detail. No matter: we have to say 'fine' out of politeness and civility and change the subject, or else ruminate the question during our whole lives and reserve our reply for afterward.

  Pascal Bruckner

  Profound, Details, Answers

  Pascal Bruckner (2011). “Perpetual Euphoria: On the Duty to Be Happy”, p.19, Princeton University Press

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• 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

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• 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.

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• 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

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• 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.

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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".

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• 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.

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

  Daniel Dennett

  Rude, Obliged

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• 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.

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