Propriety Quotes

• I entirely concur in the propriety of resorting to the sense in which the Constitution was accepted and ratified by the nation. In that sense alone it is the legitimate Constitution. And if that is not the guide in expounding it, there may be no security.

  James Madison

  May, Constitution, Accepted

  James Madison, David B. Mattern (1997). “James Madison's "Advice to My Country"”, p.34, University of Virginia Press

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• If you cannot conduct yourself with propriety, give place to those who can.

  Horace

  Giving, Ifs

  16 Copy quote

• Without an acquaintance with the rules of propriety, it is impossible for the character to be established

  Confucius

  Life, Success, Wise

  Confucius (2005). “The Ethics of Confucius”, p.99, Cosimo, Inc.

  34 Copy quote

  Show source

• Propriety is the least of all laws, and the most observed.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Law

  9 Copy quote

• Propriety was a rigid master, but one that must be obeyed if one wanted to keep a sterling reputation.

  Lawana Blackwell

  Reputation, Dignity, Masters

  Lawana Blackwell (2007). “Courtship of the Vicar's Daughter, The”, p.173, Bethany House

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Straight-forwardness, without the rules of propriety, becomes rudeness.

  Confucius

  Clever, Rudeness, Scorn

  Confucius (2012). “The Analects of Confucius In Plain and Simple English: BookCaps Study Guide”, p.68, BookCaps Study Guides

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• I find it awfully difficult to determine if the habit of talking about oneself at length runs contrary to the basic rules of propriety, or if instead the man exempt from this vice is rare.

  Giacomo Leopardi

  Running, Men, Talking

  10 Copy quote

• It is graceful in a man to think and to speak with propriety, to act with deliberation, and in every occurrence of life to find out and persevere in the truth. On the other hand, to be imposed upon, to mistake, to falter, and to be deceived, is as ungraceful as to rave or to be insane.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Mistake, Men, Thinking

  Marcus Tullius Cicero (1855). “Cicero's Three books of offices, or moral duties: also his Cato Major, an essay on old age; Lælius, an essay on friendship; Paradoxes; Scipio's dream; and Letter to Quintus on the duties of a magistrate”, p.48

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Just because I tread heavily on propriety's toes doesn't mean I can't play the game when it's of use to me.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Mean, Games, Play

  Patrick Rothfuss (2011). “The Wise Man's Fear: The Kingkiller Chronicle: Day Two”, p.351, Penguin

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• No man can well doubt the propriety of placing a president of the United States under the most solemn obligations to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution.

  Joseph Story

  Men, Doubt, President

  Joseph Story (1833). “Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States: With a Preliminary Review of the Constitutional History of the Colonies and States, Before the Adoption of the Constitution”, p.339

  30 Copy quote

  Show source

• Permit me then to recommend from the sincerity of my heart, ready at all times to bleed in my country's cause, a Declaration of Independence, and call upon the world and the Great God who governs it to witness the necessity, propriety and rectitude thereof.

  Nathanael Greene

  Country, Heart, Independence

  72 Copy quote

• Look not at what is contrary to propriety; listen not to what is contrary to propriety; speak not what is contrary to propriety; make no movement which is contrary to propriety.

  Confucius

  Looks, Movement, Speak

  Confucius (2016). “The Analects”, p.63, Open Road Media

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Women are told from their infancy, and taught by the example of their mothers, that a little knowledge of human weakness, justly termed cunning, softness of temper, outward obedience and a scrupulous attention to a puerile kind of propriety, will obtain for them the protection of man.

  Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

  Mother, Men, Weakness

  Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Janet Todd (1989). “The Works of Mary Wollstonecraft”, NYU Press

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Even in killing men, observe the rules of propriety.

  Confucius

  Love, Inspirational, Funny

  7 Copy quote

• It was the king's army, the king's people, the king's taxes; and he who questioned the propriety of the royal prerogative of taking from his people without return or accounting, was reckoned, and felt himself to be, a criminal, guilty of the highest crime of disloyalty.

  John Buchanan Robinson

  Kings, Army, People

  12 Copy quote

• Be aroused by poetry; structure yourself with propriety, refine yourself with music.

  Confucius

  Music, Structure

  14 Copy quote

• The constitutionality and propriety of the Federal Government assuming to enter into a novel and vast field of legislation, namely, that of providing for the care and support of all those ... who by any form of calamity become fit objects of public philanthropy. ... I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for making the Federal Government the great almoner of public charity throughout the United States. To do so would, in my judgment, be contrary to the letter and spirit of the Constitution and subversive of the whole theory upon which the Union of these States is founded.

  Franklin Pierce

  Power, Government, Support

  66 Copy quote

• Rhetoric is useful because truth and justice are in their nature stronger than their opposites; so that if decisions be made, not in conformity to the rule of propriety, it must have been that they have been got the better of through fault of the advocates themselves: and this is deserving reprehension.

  Aristotle

  Opposites, Justice, Decision

  Aristotle (1890). “Aristotle's Treatise on Rhetoric, Literally Tr. with Hobbes' Analysis, Examination Questions and an Appendix Containing the Greek Definitions: Also, The Poetic of Aristotle, Literally Tr., with a Selection of Notes, an Analysis, and Questions”

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• The responsibility of a minister is to step aside when there is a criminal investigation of the department. That protects the propriety of Parliament and of responsible government.

  Jack Layton

  Responsibility, Government, Criminals

  61 Copy quote

• I was a little doubtful about the propriety of going to the Mammoth Cave without a gentleman escort, but if two ladies travel alone they must have the courage of men.

  Maria Mitchell

  Travel, Men, Two

  17 Copy quote

• Riches may enable us to confer favors, but to confer them with propriety and grace requires a something that riches cannot give.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Money, Giving, Grace

  Charles Caleb COLTON (1849). “L.P.”, p.214

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Rather would I have the love songs of romantic ages, rather Don Juan and Madame Venus, rather an elopement by ladder and rope on a moonlight night, followed by the father's curse, mother's moans, and the moral comments of neighbors, than correctness and propriety measured by yardsticks.

  Emma Goldman

  Love, Mother, Song

  Emma Goldman (2015). “Anarchism: Top Crime Collections”, p.125, 谷月社

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• A footman may swear; but he cannot swear like a lord. He can swear as often: but can he swear with equal delicacy, propriety, and judgment?

  Jonathan Swift

  Funny, Humorous, Delicacy

  Jonathan Swift (1861). “The Works of Jonathan Swift ...: With Copious Notes and Additions, and a Memoir of the Author”, p.22

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart.

  Confucius

  Love, Inspirational, Funny

  Confucius (2013). “Confucian Analects, The Great Learning & The Doctrine of the Mean”, p.318, Courier Corporation

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• The man who barely abstains from violating either the person, or the estate, or the reputation of his neighbours, has surely very little positive merit. He fulfils, however, all the rules of what is peculiarly called justice, and does every thing which his equals can with propriety force him to do, or which they can punish him for not doing. We may often fulfil all the rules of justice by sitting still and doing nothing.

  Adam Smith

  Men, Sitting Still, Justice

  Adam Smith (2016). “The Essays on Philosophical Subjects: the Great Master”, p.92, VM eBooks

  6 Copy quote

  Show source