Quentin Crisp Quotes

A gentleman does not appear to know more or to be more than those with whom he is thrown into company.

I think I tend to try to let a woman walk through a door first, and I walk on the outside on the street. But that's probably because I'm an ancient creature.

Gentlemen don't do that.

A gentleman should never take his hat off with a flourish.

The gentleman will sit! The gentleman is correct in sitting!

A lady never asks a gentleman to dance, or to go to supper with her.

It is perfectly right for a gentleman to say "ladies and gentlemen," but a lady should say, "gentlemen and ladies." You mention your friend's name before you do your own. I always feel like rebuking any woman who says, "ladies and gentlemen." It is a lack of good manners.

The genteel thing is the genteel thing any time, if as be that a gentleman bees in a concatenation accordingly.

Curtsey while you're thinking what to say. It saves time.

Those who seek to impress upon us that they are gentlemen will usually be found mistaken.

I never cheat or steal. Also, I never wear a top-hat with a sack coat or munch bananas in public on the streets, because a gentleman does not do those things either. I would as soon do the one as the other sort of thing--it is all a matter of harmony and good taste.

In proceeding to the dining-room, the gentleman gives one arm to the lady he escorts--it is unusual to offer both.

I'm a gentleman and I was always taught it's rude, to talk about a woman's age or weight unless you are breaking up with her.

No real gentleman will tell the naked truth in the presence of ladies.

The idea that no gentleman ever swears is all wrong. He can swear and still be a gentleman if he does it in a nice and benevolent and affectionate way.

A gentleman is a man who is only rude when he intends to be.

As a general rule, do not kick the shins of the opposite gentleman under the table, if personally unaquainted with him; your pleasantry is liable to be misunderstood--a circumstance at all times unpleasant.

You must be more gentle, dear, more sedate,' Ellen told her daughter. 'You must not interrupt gentlemen when they are speaking, even if you do think you know more about matters than they do. Gentlemen do not like forward girls.

If I'm out to dinner with a group of friends, and somebody offers to pay for the check, I immediately reach for my wallet. Inside is a note that says, "Say thanks!"

A lady is a woman who makes a man behave like a gentleman.

He is the very pineapple of politeness.

Perhaps propriety is as near a word as any to denote the manners of the gentleman; elegance is necessary to the fine gentleman; dignity is proper to noblemen; and majesty to kings.

Never make eye contact with anyone while eating a banana

The best way to learn to be a lady is to see how other ladies do it.

Manners are made up of trivialities of deportment which can be easily learned if one does not happen to know them.