Elsa Maxwell Quotes

When meeting royalty, it is very important, no matter how excited you are, not to vomit on them. Instead, vomit on the nearest commoner.

Were you to converse with a king, you ought to be as easy and unembarrassed as with your own valet-de chambre; but yet every look,word, and action should imply the utmost respect.... You must wait till you are spoken to; you must receive, not give, the subject of conversation, and you must even take care that the given subject of such conversation do not lead you into any impropriety.

You can't treat royalty like people with normal perverted desires.

The man who bows before the ruler, shows his behind to the courtiers

Punctuality is the stern virtue of men of business, and the graceful courtesy of princes.

Ceremony is an invention to take off the uneasy feeling which we derive from knowing ourselves to be less the object of love and esteem with a fellow-creature than some other person is. It endeavours to make up, by superior attentions in little points, for that invidious preference which it is forced to deny in the greater.

When the Quaker Penn kept his hat on in the royal presence, Charles (King Charles II) politely removed his, explaining that it was the custom in that place for only one person at a time to remain covered.

To go where the King goes afoot (i.e. to the stool).

Truly good manners are invisible: they ease the way for others, without drawing attention to themselves. It is no accident that the word "punctilious" ("attentive to formality or etiquette") comes from the same original root as punctuation.

Touching your cap to the Squire may be damn bad for the Squire, but it's damn good for you.

There is a proper way to greet the sentinels in Ceris, certain patterns and forms that you must observe when presented to Queen Islanzadí, and a hundred different manners in which to greet those around you, if it’s not better to just remain quiet.” “With all your customs,” Eragon risked saying, “it seems as though you’ve only made it easier to offend people.” A smile flickered across her lips. “Perhaps.

It is something, I thought, when a king can put a courtesan to the blush.

The basic meaning of etiquette is to be quick at both the beginning and end and tranquil in the middle.

Queen Elizabeth, who said, Not now, I'm on the throne. Never got a dinner!

A certain degree of ceremony is a necessary outwork of manners, as well as of religion; it keeps the forward and petulant at a proper distance, and is a very small restraint to the sensible and to the well-bred part of the world.

I fluffed off the guy who kept requesting tunes all night, then found out he was the King's son.

Etiquette has no regard for moral qualities.

Elitism is the slur directed at merit by mediocrity.

The address 'Woman' was so respectful that it might be, and was, addressed to the queenliest.

It may be laid down as a general rule, that no woman who hath any great pretensions to admiration is ever well pleased in a company where she perceives herself to fill only the second place.

"Sorry," she said, "I got out as fast as I could, but I had to stay and socialize. Protocol, you know." "Explain protocol," Nell said. This was how she always talked to the Primer. "At the place we’re going, you need to watch your manners. Don’t say 'explain this' or 'explain that.'" "Would it impose on your time unduly to provide me with a concise explanation of the term protocol?" Nell said. Again Rita made that nervous laugh and looked at Nell with an expression that looked like poorly concealed alarm.

Ceremonies are the outworks of manners.

You don't go to Buckingham Palace in a sweater.

it was always insolent for a common man to take a chair in the presence of a lady - the word LADY, we may be sure, capitalized in her mind, and denoting not sex but rank.