Emily Post Quotes

Ideal conversation must be an exchange of thought, and not, as many of those who worry most about their shortcomings believe, an eloquent exhibition of wit or oratory.

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.

Good manners reflect something from inside-an innate sense of consideration for others and respect for self.

Nothing is less important than which fork you use. Etiquette is the science of living. It embraces everything. It is ethics. It is honor.

If you are hurt, whether in mind or body, don't nurse your bruises. Get up, and light-heartedly, courageously, good-temperedly, get ready for the next encounter.

To make a pleasant and friendly impression is not alone good manners, but equally good business.

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.

The attributes of a great lady may still be found in the rule of the four S's: Sincerity, Simplicity, Sympathy, and Serenity.

Manner is personality—the outward manifestation of one’s innate character and attitude toward life.

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.

Whenever two people come together and their behavior affects one another, you have etiquette.

The natural impulses of every thoroughbred include his sense of honor; his love of fair play and courage; his dislike of pretense and of cheapness.

"Keep your hands to yourself!" might almost be put at the head of the first chapter of every book on etiquette.

Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others.

An overdose of praise is like 10 lumps of sugar in coffee; only a very few people can swallow it.

A gentleman does not boast about his junk.

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.

Custom is a mutable thing; yet we readily recognize the permanence of certain social values. Graciousness and courtesy are never old-fashioned.

Never so long as you live, write a letter to a man - no matter who he is - that you would be ashamed to see in a newspaper above your signature.

If God had intended for women to wear slacks, He would have constructed them differently.

A gentleman should never take his hat off with a flourish.

Jealousy is the suspicion of one's own inferiority.

A little praise is not only merest justice but is beyond the purse of no one.

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.

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.

A lady never asks a gentleman to dance, or to go to supper with her.

Courtesy demands that you, when you are a guest, shall show neither annoyance nor disappointment--no matter what happens.

Never do anything that is unpleasant to others.

To tell a lie in cowardice, to tell a lie for gain, or to avoid deserved punishment--are all the blackest of black lies.

Bread is like dressed, hats and shoes - in other words, essential!

Never say "Au revoir" unless you have been talking French, or are speaking to a French person.

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.

The good guest is almost invisible, enjoying him or herself, communing with fellow guests, and, most of all, enjoying the generous hospitality of the hosts.

Etiquette requires the presumption of good until the contrary is proved.

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.

Training a child is exactly like training a puppy; a little heedless inattention and it is out of hand immediately; the great thing is not to let it acquire bad habits that must afterward be broken.

Manners are made up of trivialities of deportment which can be easily learned if one does not happen to know them.

The eleventh commandment, "Thou shalt not be found out" is despicable, but nevertheless, it is the one thing you can never get away from.

Elbows are never put on the table while one is eating.

Alas! it is true: "Be polite to bores and so shall you have bores always round about you."

Rather be frumpy than vulgar! Much. Frumps are often celebrities in disguise -- but a person of vulgar appearance is vulgar all through.

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.

To do exactly as your neighbors do is the only sensible rule.

The most vulgar slang is scarcely worse than the attempted elegance which those unused to good society imagine to be the evidence of cultivation.

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

The joy of joys is the person of light but unmalicious humor.

It is impossible for a hatless woman to be chic.

The fault of bad taste is usually in over-dressing. Quality not effect, is the standard to seek for.

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.

The attributes of a great lady may still be found in the rule of the four S's: Sincerity Simplicity Sympathy and Serenity.