Harper Lee Quotes

Manners are the ability to put someone else at their ease...by turning any answer into another question.

I think you have to be respectful to the people who want to talk to you.

Be respectful. Treat people the way you want to be treated. Respect the lowest rank and the highest rank and you'll never get in trouble.

As a well-known great man would have said if he had thought of it, "Don't go around offending people just because it can be done sitting down."

Now, I talk to athletes who answer questions with a 'yeah'. I realize I used to do that. Or they answer very quickly and you stand there trying to come up with another question to ask. I've seen both sides and it's been very educational.

The test of good manners is to be patient with the bad ones.

It doesn't matter how many A-levels you have, what kind of a degree you have, if you have good manners, people will like you.

The person who talks a lot or talks over people misses out because they weren't listening.

Ask others about themselves, at the same time, be on guard not to talk too much about yourself.

I know how I like to be treated, so I always start by saying, 'Could you give me a moment of your time, I know you're very busy,' and usually, they will.

There is nothing I hate more than meeting someone who has forgotten the art of conversing.

We need to learn to observe and listen to people more to get to know them.

You've got to be an observer. And you've got to take time to listen to people, talk, to watch what they do.

Among well-bred people a mutual deference is affected, contempt for others is disguised; authority concealed; attention given to each in his turn; and an easy stream of conversation maintained without vehemence, without interruption, without eagerness for victory, and without any airs of superiority

You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.

Being polite, being respectful, having manners, and being a socialite - they're key life skills that people take for granted. Being able to communicate with all people on all levels is what's got me so far.

You can tell a lot about a person by the way they treat waiters and shop assistants, especially when you are one.

American life is based on a reassurance that we like one another but won't violate one another's privacies. This makes it a land of small talk.

I have realised that it's important to be a sport, be nice, and know what to speak and when.

A big part of the challenge is teaching your kids how to have a real conversation, not a texting conversation. If they're not sitting down at the table, the art of conversation is going to go.

You get on an elevator with someone, you say hi to them, you speak to them. You give respect. That's just how I've always been.

One can win the attention and time and cooperation of even the most sought-after people by becoming genuinely interested in them.

Politeness is sometimes a great tax upon sincerity.

In truth, 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. It is the practice of sacrificing to those whom we meet in society, all the little inconveniences and preferences which will gratify them, and deprive us of nothing worth a moment's consideration; it is the giving a pleasing and flattering turn to our expressions, which will conciliate others, and make them pleased with us as well as themselves. How cheap a price for the good will of another!

Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others.