Henning Mankell Quotes

Americans are incredibly polite as long as they get what they want.

A woman comes to a table, and you're supposed to get up. Period. But I don't always do it. In general, you're supposed to do it every time. But sometimes you're seated against the wall, and it's awkward.

The test of good manners is to be able to put up pleasantly with bad ones.

It is not polite to receive a favor without returning it.

Britons are very respectful - if they want to take a photo, they ask politely.

You don't spit on people, especially people's corners.

Good-breeding is not confined to externals, much less to any particular dress or attitude of the body; it is the art of pleasing, or contributing as much as possible to the ease and happiness of those with whom you converse.

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, really good ones, make it possible to live with almost anyone, gracefully and pleasantly.

Manners form the great charm of women.

Common courtesy dictates that we never drain the lifeblood of anyone to whom we've been formally introduced.

such is the effect of true politeness, that it banishes all restraint and embarassment.

Whoever makes the fewest persons uneasy, is the best bred man in company.

Good manners, to those one does not love, are no more a breach of truth, than "your humble servant," at the bottom of a challengeis; they are universally agreed upon, and understand to be things of course. They are necessary guards of the decency and peace of society.

A lot of our lives are about being polite.

His courtesy was somewhat extravagant. He would write and thank people who wrote to thank him for wedding presents and when he encountered anyone as punctilious as himself the correspondence ended only with death.

To be an agreeable guest one need only enjoy oneself.

Being polite is not only the right way to respond to people but also the easiest. Life is so filled with unavoidable conflict that I see no reason to promote more confrontations.

don't be angry with the gentleman for thinking, whatever be the cause, for I assure you he makes no common practice of offending in that way.

My father always used to say ‘treat everyone as a gentleman; not because they are, but because you are.’

I find it very eerie when somebody is being really polite.

Good manners disappear in proportion as the influence of a Court and an exclusive aristocracy lessens; this decrease can be plainly observed from decade to decade by those who have an eye for public behavior, which grows visibly.

It is not enough to be wrong, one must also be polite.

The civilities of the great are never thrown away.

I think the sort of person you want at a party is someone who is self-aware, polite and has a basic knowledge of table manners. And that goes for both men and women.