#politeness

Don’t say bad words; don’t interrupt people; don’t shove; don’t steal; don’t lie. To the child, all these prohibitions appear identical (“It’s not nice”). The distinction between the ethical and the aesthetic will come only later, and gradually. Politeness thus precedes morality, or rather, morality at first is nothing more than politeness: a compliance with usage and its established rules, with the normative play of appearances—a compliance with the world and the ways of the world. ↗

— André Comte-Sponville

#life

The boldness of his mind was sheathed in a scabbard of politeness. ↗

— Dumas Malone

#boldness #courtesy #mind #politeness #scabbard

Reading at meals is considered rude in polite society, but if you expect to succeed as a writer, rudeness should be the second-to-least of your concerns. The least of all should be polite society and what it expects. ↗

— Stephen King

#norms #politeness #reading #society #writing

Ceremonies are different in every country, but true politeness is everywhere the same. ↗

— Oliver Goldsmith

#country #different #every #everywhere #politeness

Lively, intelligent, and quite immature, [Emily] usually burst out with exactly the comment that summed up the situation beautifully and therefore could never in politeness be said. ↗

— Clare B. Dunkle

#insightfulness #intelligence #politeness #beauty

It is wise to apply the oil of refined politeness to the mechanism of friendship. ↗

— Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

#friendship #mechanism #oil #politeness #refined

Courtesy is a silver lining around the dark clouds of civilization; it is the best part of refinement and in many ways, an art of heroic beauty in the vast gallery of man’s cruelty and baseness. ↗

— Bryant McGill

#courtesy #manners #politeness #art

I place a high moral value on the way people behave. I find it repellent to have a lot, and to behave with anything other than courtesy in the old sense of the word - politeness of the heart, a gentleness of the spirit. ↗

— Fran Lebowitz

#behave #courtesy #find #gentleness #heart

Politeness is half good manners and half good lying. ↗

— Mary Wilson Little

#good manners #half #lying #manners #politeness

Politeness is only one half good manners and the other half good lying. ↗

— Mary Wilson Little

#good manners #half #lying #manners #one half