P. J. O'Rourke Quotes

Good manners are a part of good morals.

Good manners can render even virtue tolerable.

It is a very nice world-that is, if you remember that while morals are all-important between the Lord and His creatures, what counts between one creature and another is good manners.

Manners are the basic building blocks of civil society.

Manners are love in a cool climate.

Manners are one of the greatest engines of influence ever given to man.

There's no chivalry in culture any more. Sometimes you meet someone who everyone says is polite and you're like, 'Wow,' but then it's like, 'Hang on, isn't everyone supposed to be polite?'

Manners are really very important to me.

Manners are the happy ways of doing things.

The challenge of manners is not so much to be nice to someone whose favor and/or person you covet (although more people need to be reminded of that necessity than one would suppose) as to be exposed to the bad manners of others without imitating them.

Politeness has been defined to be artificial good-nature; but we may affirm, with much greater propriety, that good-nature is natural politeness.

Respect for ourselves guides our morals, respect for others guides our manners.

Manners are the hypocrisy of a nation.

No one is more insufferable than he who lacks basic courtesy.

People don't know how to behave in public anymore.

Look not at what is contrary to propriety; listen not to what is contrary to propriety; speak not what is contrary to propriety; make no movement which is contrary to propriety.

Manners easily and rapidly mature into morals.

My family trained me to be polite to people I had just met, and that included strangers. You speak when you're spoken to. You look people in the eye when they address you and when you address them back.

Charm, I think, is education, really, no? I was educated to be nice to everybody. If you want to be rude and mean, I'm sure your life isn't that nice.

People are pretty respectful for the most part.

Grownups have to say 'please,' too.

Nothing is less important than which fork you use. Etiquette is the science of living. It embraces everything. It is ethics. It is honor.

Civility is not simply about manners.

Etiquette means behaving yourself a little better than is absolutely essential.

Don't keep your good manners to the end another time, but begin with them.