Mark Twain Quotes

Politeness is deception in pretty packaging.

To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.

It is happy for you that you possess the talent of flattering with delicacy. May I ask whether these pleasing attentions proceed from the impulse of the moment, or are they the result of previous study?

It is simpler and easier to flatter people than to praise them.

Nothing is so great an example of bad manners as flattery. If you flatter all the company, you please none; If you flatter only one or two, you offend the rest.

I call people 'captain' a lot and it makes them feel special. Until they hear me using it for everyone, that is.

Politeness is sometimes a great tax upon sincerity.

Flattery is a challenge. The proper turning away from it, undercutting, diminishing it without offense or vehemence, is a social grace sweeter even than the swift determination to keep ahead in the race of hospitality.

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

Manners are a way of getting what you want without appearing to be an absolute swine.

The highest perfection of politeness is only a beautiful edifice, built, from the base to the dome, of ungraceful and gilded forms of charitable and unselfish 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.

I was raised to be charming, not sincere.

Flattery in courtship is the highest insolence, for whilst it pretends to bestow on you more than you deserve, it is watching an opportunity to take from you what you really have.

One may define flattery as a base companionship which is most advantageous to the flatterer.

Politeness, n: The most acceptable hypocrisy.

Nothing costs less nor is cheaper than compliments of civility.

To be flattered is grateful, even when we know that our praises are not believed by those who pronounce them; for they prove, at least, our power, and show that our favour is valued, since it is purchased by the meanness of falsehood.

Compliments are only lies in court clothes.

Madam, before you flatter a man so grossly to his face, you should consider whether or not your flattery is worth his having.

The man who thrusts his manners upon me does as if he were to insist on introducing me to his cabinet of curiosities, when I wished to see himself.

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.

I don't mean to be rude—" he began, in a tone that threatened rudeness in every syllable. "Yet, sadly, accidental rudeness occurs alarmingly often," Dumbledore finished the sentence gravely.

This laudable quality is commonly known by the name of Manners and Good-breeding, and consists in a Fashionable Habit, acquir'd by Precept and Example, of flattering the Pride and Selfishness of others, and concealing our own with Judgment and Dexterity.

I believe in courtesy, the ritual by which we avoid hurting other people's feelings by satisfying our own egos.