Emily Post Quotes
-
Golf is a particularly severe strain upon the amiability of the average person's temper, and in no other game, except bridge, is serenity of disposition so essential.
→ -
The only occasion when the traditions of courtesy permit a hostess to help herself before a woman guest is when she has reason to believe the food is poisoned.
→ -
Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.
→ -
To do exactly as your neighbors do is the only sensible rule.
→ -
In popular houses where visitors like to go again and again, there is always a happy combination of some attention on the part of the hostess and the perfect freedom of the guests to occupy their time as they choose.
→ -
The eleventh commandment, "Thou shalt not be found out" is despicable, but nevertheless, it is the one thing you can never get away from.
→ -
To tell a lie in cowardice, to tell a lie for gain, or to avoid deserved punishment--are all the blackest of black lies.
→ -
The fault of bad taste is usually in over-dressing. Quality not effect, is the standard to seek for.
→ -
The honor of a gentleman demands the inviolability of his word, and the incorruptibility of his principles. He is the descendent of the knight, the crusader; he is the defender of the defenseless and the champion of justice--or he is not a gentleman.
→ -
Never take more than your share - whether of the road in driving your car, of chairs on a boat or seats on a train, or food at the table.
→ -
"Keep your hands to yourself!" might almost be put at the head of the first chapter of every book on etiquette.
→ -
There is no reason why you should be bored when you can be otherwise. But if you find yourself sitting in the hedgerow with nothing but weeds, there is no reason for shutting your eyes and seeing nothing, instead of finding what beauty you may in the weeds. To put it cynically, life is too short to waste it in drawing blanks. Therefore, it is up to you to find as many pictures to put on your blank pages as possible.
→ -
If God had intended for women to wear slacks, He would have constructed them differently.
→ -
A gentleman does not boast about his junk.
→ -
The letter we all love to receive is one that carries so much of the writer’s personality that she seems to be sitting beside us, looking at us directly and talking just as she really would, could she have come on a magic carpet, instead of sending her proxy in ink-made characters on mere paper.
→ -
Any child can be taught to be beautifully behaved with no effort greater than quiet patience and perseverance, whereas to break bad habits once they are acquired is a Herculean task.
→ -
Unconsciousness of self is not so much unselfishness as it is the mental ability to extinguish all thought of one's self - exactly as one turns out the light.
→ -
Manners are made up of trivialities of deportment which can be easily learned if one does not happen to know them.
→ -
To the old saying that man built the house but woman made of it a 'home' might be added the modern supplement that woman accepted cooking as a chore but man has made of it a recreation.
→ -
Excepting a religious ceremonial, there is no occasion where greater dignity of manner is required of ladies and gentlemen both, than in occupying a box at the opera. For a gentleman especially no other etiquette is so exacting.
→ -
Manners are like primary colors, there are certain rules and once you have these you merely mix, i.e., adapt, them to meet changing situations.
→ -
Etiquette requires the presumption of good until the contrary is proved.
→ -
Never think, because you cannot write a letter easily, that it is better not to write at all. The most awkward note imaginable is better than none.
→ -
To be a good sportsman, one must be a stoic and never show rancor in defeat, or triumph in victory, or irritation, no matter what annoyance is encountered. One who can not help sulking, or explaining, or protesting when the loser, or exulting when the winner, has no right to take part in games or contests.
→ -
Manner is personality—the outward manifestation of one’s innate character and attitude toward life.
→ -
Never say "Au revoir" unless you have been talking French, or are speaking to a French person.
→ -
A little praise is not only merest justice but is beyond the purse of no one.
→ -
To make a pleasant and friendly impression is not alone good manners, but equally good business.
→ -
Children are all more or less little monkeys in that they imitate everything they see. If their mother treats them exactly as she does her visitors they in turn play "visitor" to perfection. Nothing hurts the feelings of children more than not being allowed to behave like grown persons when they think they are able.
→ -
An overdose of praise is like 10 lumps of sugar in coffee; only a very few people can swallow it.
→