Russell Smith Quotes

I'm an American searching for some sort of parameters, a way of life - I'm looking for a slight formality, for a place where you can never be overdressed.

A suit is a sign of respect.

There are times to be casual and times to be correct. It's all right to wear a sweater and slacks on a picnic, but they don't belong in the theater or the drawing room.

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

Yes, but also one of the problems for a novelist in Ireland is the fact that there are no formal manners. I mean some people have beautiful manners but there's no kind of agreed form of manners.

When you go to a show, Americans in New York are very proper, much more so than the French. Everything is perfect. Their hair, the nails, everything. The look. Everything is perfection.

I believe in dressing for the occasion. There's a time for sweater, sneakers and Levis and a time for the full-dress jazz.

Wearing the correct dress for any occasion is a matter of good manners.

As manners make laws, so manners likewise repeal them.

It is impossible to be taken seriously in shorts. No one has ever cared about anything said by a man in shorts.

Writers on etiquette receive a continuous flow of questions on subjects such as 'When is it too early in the season to wear white accessories?' and 'What is the proper gift to send to a family in mourning?'

Jeans should never be worn to someone's home if you are having dinner there.

I'm not a fan of underdressing, I think it's better to be overdressed than underdressed.

I get more disgusted with men all the time - particularly traveling Americans. They start out on a trip to Europe and never bother to pack a dinner jacket. This is not only stupid - it's bad manners.

It's not polite to refuse to dress for a parly. It's an insult to your hostess. After all, correct dress is a part of good manners.

When we go to the opera, we put the clothes on we know we must wear for there.

I was always taught how to dress for the occasion.

Wearing a suit can seem like a somewhat archaic gesture, a concession to formality in a determinedly casual age.

It's important to match your style with the occasion.

The more conservative you dress, the more you can get away with.

I just feel like people need role models, you know, that are dressed.

The hat is not for the street: it will never be democratized. But there are certain houses that one cannot enter without a hat. And one must always wear a hat when lunching with people whom one does not know well. One appears to one's best advantage.

Lord Maccon believed that if his trousers were on his legs, and something else was on his torso, he was dressed. The less done after that, the better. His wife had been startled to find that in the summertime, he actually went around their room barefoot! Once -- and only once, mind you -- he even attempted to join her for tea in such a state. Impossible man. Alexia put a stop to that posthaste.

-'What do ties matter, Jeeves, at a time like this?' There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter

Good manners require space and time.