Civilized Behavior Quotes

Manners are of more importance than laws. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe.

Man perfected by society is the best of all animals; he is the most terrible of all when he lives without law and without justice. If he finds himself an individual who cannot live in society, or who pretends he has need of only his own resources do not consider him as a member of humanity; he is a savage beast or a god.

Listen, I'm a gentleman at the end of the day.

Respectability is the dickey on the bosom of civilization.

I know I am among civilized men because they are fighting so savagely.

Dissimulation is the only thing that makes society possible; without its amenities the world would be a bear-garden.

Is it possible that nobody has ever known that there never has been a completely civilized man, and won't be for another thousand years?

The question is whether any civilization can wage relentless war on life without destroying itself, and without losing the right to be called civilized.

One loses the capacity to grieve as a child grieves, or to rage as a child rages: hotly, despairingly, with tears of passion. One grows up, one becomes civilized, one learns one's manners, and consequently can no longer manage these two functions - sorrow and anger - adequately.

Politeness is the chief sign of culture.

By peace our condition has been improved in the pursuit of civilized life.

Barbarism? That's ironic coming from a woman helping to prepare us for slaughter. And what's she basing our success on? Our table manners?

The limitation upon this mode of promoting peace lies in the fact that it consists in an appeal to the civilized side of man, while war is the product of forces proceeding from man's original savage nature.

In the faculty of speech man excels the brute; but if thou utterest what is improper, the brute is they superior.

Darwinian man, though well-behaved, at best is only a monkey shaved.

No rule of etiquette is of less importance than which fork we use.

Many young persons believe themselves natural when they are only impolite and coarse.

The wisest and best are repulsive, if they are characterized by repulsive manners. Politeness is an easy virtue, costs little, and has great purchasing power.

Man must be disciplined, for he is by nature raw and wild.

A well-bred man is always sociable and complaisant.

For the sake of our children, let's behave like civilized, law-abiding adults.

"Civilization rests on two things," said Hitzig; "the discovery that fermentation produces alcohol, and voluntary ability to inhibit defecation. And I put it to you, where would this splendidly civilized occasion be without both?"

The Indian is one of Nature's gentlemen--he never says or does a rude or vulgar thing. The vicious, uneducated barbarians, who form the surplus of overpopulous European countries, are far behind the wild man in delicacy of feeling or natural courtesy.

I have no use for people who exhibit manners.

I think our culture encourages all of us to always put our best foot forward. I think it's a good thing. I think it's nice to rise to the occasion, to be kind and considerate, and have self control.