John Gay Quotes

Politeness is sometimes a great tax upon sincerity.

Politeness is half good manners and half good lying.

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.

Politeness, n: The most acceptable hypocrisy.

The world prefers decorum to honesty.

A world without any lies at all is not a good world, because it's artless and because there are no white lies, no flattery.

as everybody knows, truthfulness and agreeable manners are often divorced on the ground of incompatibility.

Politeness only teaches us to save others from unnecessary pain.... You are not bound by politeness to tell any falsehoods.

I would seriously question whether anybody is really foolish enough to really say what they mean. Sometimes I think that civilization as we know it would kind of break down if we all were completely honest.

It is more comfortable for me, in the long run, to be rude than polite.

The chief ingredients in the composition of those qualities that gain esteem and praise, are good nature, truth, good sense, and good breeding.

It's so much easier to tell people what they want to hear instead of what they need to hear.

Truthful words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not truthful. Good words are not persuasive; persuasive words are not good.

Politeness is only one half good manners and the other half good lying.

It is foreign to the Cherokee principle to feign friendship where it does not exist.

Our aversion to lying is commonly a secret ambition to make what we say considerable, and have every word received with a religious respect.

Some people say things they think you want to hear, and some people say the things they are actually thinking.

The first point of courtesy must always be truth.

The liar was the hottest to defend his veracity, the coward his courage, the ill-bred his gentlemanliness, and the cad his honor

It is better to be silent and be real than to talk and not be real.

I'd rather get bad news from an honest man than lies from a flatterer.

The first great requisite is absolute sincerity. Falsehood and disguise are miseries and misery-makers.

Those who don't say what they mean will live and die by their own sword.

And if candor strikes to forcefully, step back, draw careful breath, and consider the angle your words must take before you open your mouth, let them leak out. Because once you tilt the truth, it becomes a lie.

Politeness is deception in pretty packaging.