Politeness Quotes

“The boldness of his mind was sheathed in a scabbard of politeness.”
― Dumas Malone, Jefferson the Virginian

“It is a wise thing to be polite; consequently, it is a stupid thing to be rude. To make enemies by unnecessary and willful incivility, is just as insane a proceeding as to set your house on fire. For politeness is like a counter--an avowedly false coin, with which it is foolish to be stingy.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer, The Wisdom of Life and Counsels and Maxims

“Politeness is organized indifference.”
― Paul Valéry

“Never start a sentence with the words 'No offense.”
― Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun

“Can he love her? Can the soul really be satisfied with such polite affections? To love is to burn - to be on fire, like Juliet or Guinevere or Eloise...”
― Emma Thompson, The Sense and Sensibility Screenplay and Diaries: Bringing Jane Austen's Novel to Film

“A gentleman is someone who does not what he wants to do, but what he should do.”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

“Politeness. Now there's a poor man's virtue if ever there was one. What's so admirable about inoffensiveness, I should like to know. After all, it's easily achieved. One needs no particular talent to be polite. On the contrary, being nice is what's left when you've failed at everything else. People with ambition don't give a damn what other people think about them.”
― Diane Setterfield, The Thirteenth Tale

“Politeness is okay, but it gets old and boring. You want to attack life with a passion, not a politeness, you want people to think about you and remember you and say "she is so passionate" you don't want people to think about you and remember you and say "she is so polite," because, who cares about polite?”
― C. JoyBell C.

“Politeness [is] a sign of dignity, not subservience.”
― Theodore Roosevelt

“Nay, but prithee, with sprinkles 'pon it instead," I said solemnly, "and frosting of white.”
― Jim Butcher, Small Favor

“A real gentleman is as polite to a little girl as to a woman.”
― Louisa May Alcott, An Old-Fashioned Girl

“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, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

“Be sincere, Be brief, Be seated.”
― Franklin Delano Roosevelt

“One needs no particular talent to be polite. On the contrary, being nice is what's left when you've failed at everything else.”
― Diane Setterfield, The Thirteenth Tale

“Politeness is the first thing people lose once they get the power.”
― Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words

“Be polite; write diplomatically; even in a declaration of war one observes the rules of politeness.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“I remember manners, that's when people are scared to make other persons mad.”
― Emma Donoghue, Room

“As a Texan, I say ma'm and sir to my age contemporaries and open doors for anyone that I can. This goes for men, too, though it is appreciated when they beat me to it and disappointing when they don't.”
― Tiffany Madison

“Try to be polite."
"I'm always polite."
"You're always eyeing people's valuables. That's hardly polite.”
― Jodi Meadows, The Orphan Queen

“Preserve me from such cordiality! It is like handling briar-roses and may-blossoms - bright enough to the eye, and outwardly soft to the touch, but you know there are thorns beneath, and every now and then you feel them too; and perhaps resent the injury by crushing them in till you have destroyed their power, though somewhat to the detriment of your own fingers.”
― Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

“The first rule of etiquette a boy learns when he's about to enter
society is that civility is due to all women. No provocation, no
matter how unjust and rudely delivered, can validate a man who fails
to treat a woman with anything less than utmost courtesy."

The boys hung on his every word. He glanced in her direction.

"I have met some incredibly unpleasant women, and I have never failed
in this duty. But I must admit: your sister may prove my undoing.”
― Ilona Andrews, On the Edge

“Woah,' I said, blocking the doorway. 'You can't come in here. This is the girls' room.'
Even as it came out of my mouth, I knew it sounded dumb. Dumb, I thought and maybe even wrong.
You...are a boy, aren't you?' I asked. 'I mean, don't take that the wrong way or anything -'
J.Lo is a boy, yes.' I let that go.
So...you Boov have boys and girls...just like us?'
Of course,' said J.Lo. 'Do not be ridicumlous.'
I smiled a wan little smile. 'Sorry.'
The Boov have seven magnificent genders. There is boy, girl, girlboy, boygirl, boyboy, boyboygirl, and boyboyboyboy.'
I had absolutely no response to this.”
― Adam Rex, The True Meaning of Smekday

“She'd never mastered the talent for apologizing, but she appreciated it in other people.”
― Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters

“There is an old German fable about porcupines who need to huddle together for warmth, but are in danger of hurting each other with their spines. When they find the optimum distance to share each other's warmth without putting each other's eyes out, their state of contrived cooperation is called good manners. Well, those old German fabulists certainly knew a thing or two. When you acknowledge other people politely, the signal goes out, "I'm here. You're there. I'm staying here. You're staying there. Aren't we both glad we sorted that out?" When people don't acknowledge each other politely, the lesson from the porcupine fable is unmistakeable. "Freeze or get stabbed, mate. It's your choice.”
― Lynne Truss, Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door

“Ironic. I'm here because of my inherent dangerousness, but it's my inherent politeness that makes me put up with this. With him.”
― Sophie Jordan, Uninvited

“I still can't understand how Cecil and my old tutor, Fitz, got along so well, when we often called Fitz 'the Genius' and avoided calling Cecil anything at all, so as not to be rude.”
― Franny Billingsley, Chime

“Killing a cruelty is not a cruelty.”
― Amit Kalantri

“He knew very well that the great majority of human conversation is meaningless. A man can get through most of his days on stock answers to stock questions, he thought. Once he catches onto the game, he can manage with an assortment of grunts. This would not be so if people listened to each other, but they don't. They know that no one is going to say anything moving and important to them at that very moment. Anything important will be announced in the newspapers and reprinted for those who missed it. No one really wants to know how his neighbor is feeling, but he asks him anyway, because it is polite, and because he knows that his neighbor certainly will not tell him how he feels. What this woman and I say to each other is not important. It is the simple making of sounds that pleases us.”
― Peter S. Beagle, A Fine and Private Place

“When I act tough they listen politely till the spasm passes. They know.”
― Frank McCourt, Teacher Man

“He also had a kind of helpless politeness, which I took advantage of. He was quite incapable of refusing a direct request, and so, because I asked him to, he invited me to several parties during the month I stayed in Hemgogn.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, Changing Planes