Manners Quotes

“Everyone wants to know why customer service has gone to hell in a handbasket. I want to know why customer behavior has gone to hell in a handbasket.”
― Brené Brown, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

“I have three things I'd like to say today. First, while you were sleeping last night, 30,000 kids died of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition. Second, most of you don't give a shit. What's worse is that you're more upset with the fact that I said shit than the fact that 30,000 kids died last night.”
― Tony Campolo

“Over thinking ruins moods and kills good vibes.”
― Supa Nova Slom, The Remedy: The Five-Week Power Plan to Detox Your System, Combat the Fat, and Rebuild Your Mind and Body

“Christ's version of kindness:

I know you are hurt. I contributed to that. Maybe, I should have said more. Done more. Listened. I am sorry for my part in the situation. I am sorry if I caused you any pain or confused you with my actions or words. How can I help you move on? I want you to have peace in your life. Let's end this by communicating.

The world's perverted version of kindness:

You caused your own pain. You get what you get. Get over it and move on. Maybe, one day you will figure out what happiness really means. By the way, I am not responsible for giving it to you. Nor, do I have to put up with people that don't bring me joy or who I can't trust. I am only responsible for myself. I will pray for you because I am a good Christian.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“All my life I have placed great store in civility and good manners, practices I find scarce among the often hard-edged, badly socialized scientists with whom I associate. Tone of voice means a great deal to me in the course of debate. I despise the arrogance and doting self-regard so frequently found among the very bright.”
― Edward O. Wilson, Naturalist

“When somebody is a little bit wrong - say, when a waited puts nonfat milk in your espresso macchiato, instead of lowfat milk - it is often quite easy to explain to them how and why they are wrong. But if somebody is surprisingly wrong - say, when a waiter bites your nose instead of taking your order - you can often be so surprised that you are unable to say anything at all. Paralyzed by how wrong the waiter is, your moth would hang slightly open and your eyes would blink over and over, but you would be unable to say a word.”
― Lemony Snicket, The Reptile Room

“A boy has other people do the talking for him; a man speaks his mind.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“Acceptable hypocrisy is often called politeness.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“The unnamed should not be mistaken for the nonexistent.”
― Jean de La Bruyère

“We are all born rude. No infant has ever appeared yet with the grace to understand how inconsiderate it is to disturb others in the middle of the night.”
― Judith Martin, Common Courtesy: In Which Miss Manners Solves the Problem That Baffled Mr. Jefferson

“It is the good children, Madame, who make the most terrible revolutionaries. They say nothing, they do not hide under the table, they eat only one sweet at a time, but later on, they make Society pay dearly for it!”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, Les Mains sales

“A gossip is one who talks to you about others, a bore is one who talks to you about himself, and a brilliant conversationalist is one who talks to you about yourself.”
― Lisa Kirk

“Whatever makes an impression on the heart seems lovely in the eye.”
― Sa'dî

“For example, in Paris, if one desires to buy something, you enter the store and say "Good morning, sir" or "madam," depending on what is appropriate, you wait until you are greeted, you make polite chitchat about the weather or some such, and when the salesperson asks what they can do for you, then and only then do you bring up the vulgar business of the transaction you require.”
― Craig Ferguson, Between the Bridge and the River

“In the North, he discoverd, courtesy was considered a barometer of genuine esteem; for any decently brought up Southerner, good manners were simply habitual.”
― Mary Doria Russell

“The very essence of politeness is to take care that by our words and actions we make other people pleased with us as well as with themselves.”
― Jean de La Bruyère

“I know she’s rather plain, but every girl has a right to conceal that fact from people who haven’t seen her.”
― Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety

“I had a friend whose family had dinner together every day. The mother would tuck you in at night and make breakfast in the morning. It just seemed so amazing to me.”
― Moon Unit Zappa

“For benefits by their very greatness spotlight the difference in conditions and arouse a secret annoyance in those who profit from them. But the charm of simple good manners is almost irresistible.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

“The ornaments of your home are the people who smile upon entering time and time again.”
― Maralee McKee, Manners That Matter for Moms: The Essential Book of Life Skills for Your Kids

“Being popular doesn’t always win spiritual change. Christ didn’t pour out the coins of the moneychangers and overturn their tables with any degree of manners when he cleansed the temple. His harshness drew a point—to make people realize how much better they could become.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“OUr past doesn't define us. It prepares us.”
― Maralee McKee, Manners That Matter for Moms: The Essential Book of Life Skills for Your Kids

“The children nodded in agreement, and rose from the table. Leaving their dirty breakfast dishes behind, which is not a good thing to do in general but perfectly acceptable in the face of an emergency.”
― Lemony Snicket, The Reptile Room

“The test of good manners is to be patient with bad ones.”
― Gabirol

“The rationale that etiquette should be eschewed because it fosters inequality does not ring true in a society that openly admits to a feverish interest in the comparative status-conveying qualities of sneakers. Manners are available to all, for free.”
― Judith Martin, Common Courtesy: In Which Miss Manners Solves the Problem That Baffled Mr. Jefferson

“She took Sunny's coat off, and then her own, and dropped them both on the floor. Normally, of course, one should hang up one's coat on a hook or in a closet, but itchy hives are very irritating and tend to make one abandon such matters.”
― Lemony Snicket, The Wide Window

“Today our children are our reflection. Tomorrow they will be our shadows.”
― Maralee McKee, Manners That Matter for Moms: The Essential Book of Life Skills for Your Kids

“I will hold my self to a standard of grace which is Christ's gift, not perfection which is Satan's trap.”
― Maralee McKee, Manners That Matter for Moms: The Essential Book of Life Skills for Your Kids

“A chief cause of worry and unhappiness in life is trading what we want most for what we want at the moment.”
― Maralee McKee, Manners That Matter for Moms: The Essential Book of Life Skills for Your Kids

“Manners,” I say. “It ain't polite to taste people. Shit.”
― Nenia Campbell, Wishing Stars: Space Opera Fairytales