Mark Helprin Quotes

I'm always gonna be crazy about dishes in the sink. Crazy! Because it's a sign of disrespect. It says that you think someone else is going to clean up after you: that you're not prepared to do it yourself.

My father would get up with his plate after dinner and keep it where it was supposed to be kept. He wouldn't leave the plate for my mom to pick up.

There's a level of immaturity to people who just can't clean up after themselves.

Now I can see I was at fault for not being more considerate, but when we were doing the show I didn't think it was my job to be considerate to other people.

But if I'm going to cause somebody else discomfort by my actions, then I should probably modify my actions toward them to make them as comfortable as possible.

I think we should all have a responsibility not to affect other people in a negative way.

Be good to people, be kind to people, show up, read the lines, hit the mark, and go home.

I never want anyone to have a bad evening because I caused it.

In petrol stations on the motorways where people have left the place looking messy, I clear up each lavatory I happen to have occupied. When people drop paper on the ground, and everything like that, I pick it up, put it in the lavatory, and make that room look nice.

While Person A might believe the kitchen counter provides a reasonable surface on which to place one's balled-up sweatsocks post-gym, Person B - about to cut up some vegetables on that same counter, perhaps for a meal intended to be shared with Person A - can only read the sockball as a message that says, 'Hi! I have contempt for you!'

Solitude was no reason for sloppiness

In my book, all manners are is thinking of somebody else.

Goodwill can be indicated in various ways. I raised that particular example because at that time I was in charge. Today, I'm not in a position to present other possibilities.

I'm not always so nice.

I think a gentleman is someone who holds the comfort of other people above their own. The instinct to do that is inside every good man, I believe. The rules about opening doors and buying dinner and all of that other 'gentleman' stuff is a chess game, especially these days.

When we're on the street and someone drops something, I pick it up.

Share everything. Don't take things that aren't yours. Put things back where you found them.

Humility is a virtue, and it is a virtue innate in guests.

I quite like it when I'm on the Tube and people offer me their seat. Sometimes I take it. The other day I was offered a seat by a pregnant lady. I thought, 'That's going a bit far.'

It is nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.

It is sometimes the man who opens the door who is the last to enter the room.

A good husband is never the first to go to sleep at night or the last to awake in the morning.

I'm nice, and I show up on time.

If I have made an appointment with you, I owe you punctuality, I have no right to throw away your time, if I do my own.

As youngsters, my mother taught her children that while we might not be the smartest people around, we could be courteous, polite and considerate of others.