quotations about courtesy
Nothing is more becoming in a great man than courtesy and forbearance.
CICERO
De Officiis
Courtesy is a debt we all owe to humanity.
NICIAS BALLARD COOKSEY
Helps to Happiness
Courtesy is only a thin veneer on the general selfishness.
HONORE DE BALZAC
Letters of Two Brides
Hail ye small sweet courtesies of life, for smooth do ye make the road of it!
LAURENCE STERNE
A Sentimental Journey
Though he was her enemy, he treated her with unfailing courtesy.
JACQUELINE CAREY
Banewreaker
Dissembling courtesy! How fine this tyrant
Can tickle where she wounds!
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Cymbeline
Courtesy in the world is by no means a false and culpable pretense. It softens rather than dissimulates; and, on the whole, since it deceives nobody, it cannot be accused of falsehood.
MADAME SWETCHINE
"Airelles", The Writings of Madame Swetchine
Politeness is artificial good humor; it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Writings
The small courtesies sweeten life; the greater ennoble it.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
A man without courtesy need not wait to clutter hell's gate.
EZRA POUND
Shih-ching: The Classic Anthology Defined by Confucius
Certainly every man can be courteous, for it costs nothing, and is within the ability of all.
NICIAS BALLARD COOKSEY
Helps to Happiness
We sometimes think we have to be courteous even when the other person is rude. But some people can't hear a tactful message. They need something stronger.
ANNE KATHERINE
Boundaries: Where You End and I Begin
How courtesy would seem to cover sin!
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Pericles
But a favor has to be answered by another favor, and the courtesies became a chain that imprisoned us.
ELENA FERRANTE
The Days of Abandonment
Courtesy is the art of treating the other fellow as if he were as important as he thinks he is.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
Her air, her manners, all who saw admired;
Courteous though coy, and gentle, though retired.
GEORGE CRABBE
The Parish Register
Trying to live and work with each other without common courtesy is like trying to operate machinery without sufficient lubrication; friction builds, sparks fly, and the machine itself begins to break down.
KONOSUKE MATSUSHITA
Career Essentials
All doors open to courtesy.
THOMAS FULLER
Gnomologia
How sweet and gracious, even in common speech,
Is that fine sense which men call Courtesy!
Wholesome as air and genial as light,
Welcome in every clime as breath of flowers,
It transmutes aliens into trusting friends,
And gives its owner passport round the globe.
JAMES T. FIELDS
Courtesy
Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in the grateful and appreciating heart.
HENRY CLAY
attributed, The Historical Wisdom of the Ages and Sages