At a formal dinner party, the person nearest death should always be seated closest to the bathroom.

If you are ever in doubt as to whether to kiss a pretty girl, always give her the benefit of the doubt.

Questions are never indiscreet, answers sometimes are.

Genteel women suppose that those things do not really exist about which it is impossible to talk in polite company.

Talk well of the absent whenever you have the opportunity.

A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone’s feelings unintentionally.

Good breeding differs, if at all, from high breeding only as it gracefully remembers the rights of others, rather than gracefully insists on its own rights.

Good manners sometimes means simply putting up with other people’s bad manners.

I don’t know why they gave me a knighthood – though it’s very nice of them – but I only ever use the title in the U.S. The Americans insist on it and get offended if I don’t.

Politeness is, you know, is a wonderful thing. Manners are in fact, really important thing. But remember, Jesus didn’t have many manners as we now know.

Well, they’re Southern people, and if they know you are working at home they think nothing of walking right in for coffee. But they wouldn’t dream of interrupting you at golf.

A grown man should always carry cash, right? I don’t know who told me, but someone told me that a long time ago, and the biggest turnoff is when a guy doesn’t have cash on him.

The moral disapprobation of society has an impact on behavior in societies.

Never speak to an invalid from behind, nor from the door, nor from any distance from him, nor when he is doing anything. The official politeness of servants in these things is so grateful to invalids, that many prefer, without knowing why, having none but servants about them.

No people is wholly civilized where a distinction is drawn between stealing an office and stealing a purse.

If you ever see The Rock working out in the gym, don’t think you can just go up and disturb his workout and expect him to take a picture. He’s there to work, so kindly just pass the silverback on by or he’ll rip your face off.

If he invited you out, he’s got to pay.

I don’t do any vulgar movements.

It is impossible, in our condition of Society, not to be sometimes a Snob.

One lesson you better learn if you want to be in politics is that you never go out on a golf course and beat the President.

Discretion of speech is more than eloquence, and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words, or in good order.

Somewhere it is written that parents who are critical of other people’s children and publicly admit they can do better are asking for it.

Like religion, politics, and family planning, cereal is not a topic to be brought up in public. It’s too controversial.

I don’t have much patience for people who are self-conscious about the act of eating, and it irritates me when someone denies themselves the pleasure of a bloody hunk of steak or a pungent French cheese because of some outdated nonsense about what’s appropriate or attractive.

I can’t stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action.

Understand: as children and young adults, we are taught to conform to certain codes of behavior and ways of doing things. We learn that being different comes with a social price.

Just as the humble, unassuming, assenting ‚O.K.‘ has deposed the more affirmative ‚Yes,‘ so the little cringe and hesitation and approximation of ‚like‘ are a help to young people who are struggling to negotiate the shoals and rapids of ethnic identity, the street, and general correctness.

I hold the door for the ladies – I’m a gent.

House guests should be regarded as perishables: Leave them out too long and they go bad.

It’s very strange to go to cities like London and New York. People walk so quickly, they seem to be in a hurry all the time. And you don’t say ‚Hi‘ to everyone you meet, and you don’t smile to everyone you meet, because there’s just so many. Which is also very strange.

Becoming a ‚Sir‘ is slightly uncomfortable at first, although it is a considerable honor. It is amazing how quickly you become accustomed to it.

Although a skillful flatterer is a most delightful companion if you have him all to yourself, his taste becomes very doubtful when he takes to complimenting other people.

T stands for being nice. T stands for manners. T stands for being polite.

Dinner was made for eating, not for talking.

It’s vulgar, coming from where I do, to talk about money.

You aren’t normal if you sing to people. You aren’t a normal person. It’s nerve-racking.

No person who is well bred, kind and modest is ever offensively plain; all real deformity means want for manners or of heart.

Black men don’t like to be called ‚boys,‘ but women accept being called ‚girls.‘

Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.

Be sincere; be brief; be seated.

All cultures have these feelings about non-functional areas of activity. And the more time people have on their hands, the more they commit it to those areas.

I’m a woman, and anytime you tell a woman that she looks nice, it’s not going to upset her.

Campaign behavior for wives: Always be on time. Do as little talking as humanly possible. Lean back in the parade car so everybody can see the president.

Nowadays, manners are easy and life is hard.

The notion that before you even set out to go to Thailand, you say, ‚I’m not interested,‘ or you’re unwilling to try things that people take so personally and are so proud of and so generous with, I don’t understand that, and I think it’s rude. You’re at Grandma’s house, you eat what Grandma serves you.

Men weren’t always happy for me. It was very challenging to watch a woman be so successful.

Manners require time, and nothing is more vulgar than haste.

Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.

I don’t eat with beautiful women alone.

The test of a man or woman’s breeding is how they behave in a quarrel.

It’s good sportsmanship to not pick up lost golf balls while they are still rolling.

Where I come from it was really unheard of to be at a party and someone says, ‚What kind of music do you make?‘, and you say, ‚Pop music.‘ You may as well have ‚I’m not cool‘ stamped on your forehead.

I never set out to be weird. It was always other people who called me weird.

To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.

Everyone likes flattery; and when you come to Royalty you should lay it on with a trowel.

It’s considered acceptable in our culture to approach perfect strangers, as often or not who may be in extremis, and evangelise. I don’t see why that’s considered a normal thing.

You know, you can make a small mistake in language or etiquette in Britain, or you could when I was younger, and really be made to feel it, and it’s the flick of a lash, but it would sting, and especially at school where there’s not much privacy, and so on. You could, yes, undoubtedly be made to feel crushed.

If we help an educated man’s daughter to go to Cambridge are we not forcing her to think not about education but about war? – not how she can learn, but how she can fight in order that she might win the same advantages as her brothers?

Too often the strong, silent man is silent only because he does not know what to say, and is reputed strong only because he has remained silent.

A man’s manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait.

What is the appropriate behavior for a man or a woman in the midst of this world, where each person is clinging to his piece of debris? What’s the proper salutation between people as they pass each other in this flood?