Amy Vanderbilt Quotes

I'd much rather sit next to a smoker in a restaurant than a nose-blower.

With long skirts, you can really buff. People open doors for you and everything.

Stay humble. Always answer your phone - no matter who else is in the car.

You can tell when someone recognizes you and they want to say something, but they don't want to bother you.

I wouldn't fart in front of my wife, and she wouldn't do it in front of me.

It should not be an act of social disobedience to light a cigarette. Unless you're actually a doctor working at an incubator.

There's not much I dislike more than being addressed as "Hey you" and being poked with a finger.

Why should we be letting people smoke their cigars in their comfortable chairs in Raqqa?

Good manners require space and time.

When asked whether he minded if someone smoked in a non-smoking compartment. Certainly not if you don't object if I'm sick.

I'm not a fan of purposely farting in front of other people. If you have to fart, leave the room.

"Keep your hands to yourself!" might almost be put at the head of the first chapter of every book on etiquette.

Easy there," Zach said when I stumbled into him. "Now's probably not the time to get handsy. You might want to control yourself.

Good manners spring from just one thing - kind impulses.

Discreetly keep most of your radical opinions to yourself. When with people be a listener a large part of the time. Be considerate in every word and act, and resist the tendency to say clever things. The best evidence of your culture is the tone and temper of your conversation.

People who ask "Can I ask you a question?" Didn't really give me a choice, did ya there buddy?

We must be courteous to a man as we are to a picture, which we are willing to give the advantage of a good light.

Should you happen to notice that another person is extremely tall or overweight, eats too much or declines convivial drinks, has red hair or goes about in a wheelchair, ought to get married or ought not to be pregnant -- see if you can refrain from bringing these astonishing observations to that person's attention.

Leaning forward in your chair when someone is trying to squeeze behind you isn't enough. You also have to move the chair.

The advent of the mobile phone was a disaster. We are forced to listen, open-mouthed, to other people's intimate conversations. Increasingly, we are all in our virtual bubbles when we are out in public, whether we are texting, listening to iPods, reading or just staring dangerously at other people.

When did the cell phone become a license to be rude? And why must I be subjected to your personal conversations?

Politeness has been well defined as benevolence in small things.

Etiquette-a fancy word for simple kindness.

It seems to me that the spirit of politeness is a certain attention in causing that, by our words and by our manners, others may be content with us and with themselves.

When someone has tried to please you, it is rude, as well as disheartening, to respond by announcing that the effort was a failure.