Courtesies Quotes

Everything is perfect.
Everything is fine.
The rules of life are made up.
The rules only exist in your mind.
Of course there may be courtesies
And closures and laws to abide,
But the zeal with which you play
Relies on where YOU draw the line ~ Jason Mraz

Our obligation to others and a gift to ourselves is to acknowledge and authentically express genuine appreciation for courtesies, caring and concern others have given us. ~ Michael Josephson

Watching other people making friends, everywhere, as a dog makes friends. I mark the manner of these canine courtesies and think, here comes, thank Heaven, another enemy! ~ Edmond Rostand

Yet he could scarcely tell Lord Mormont that it was another man's sword he dreamt of ... "I want no courtesies either," Mormont said, ~ George R R Martin

Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in the grateful and appreciating heart. ~ Henry Clay

I had not to this time subsisted, but that I was supported by your frequent courtesies and favours. ~ Philip Massinger

Our lives are fed by kind words and gracious behavior. We are nourished by expressions like 'excuse me' and other such simple courtesies ... Rudeness, the absence of the sacrament of consideration, is but another mark that our time-is-money society is lacking in spirituality, if not also in its enjoyment of life. ~ Edward M Hays

She imagined Jack standing among the bins of nails and tool belts and the ranks of crowbars, unspoken to beyond the ordinary courtesies, seeming unaware of their awareness of him, watching flickering television in that cave full of the smells of leather and wood and oily metal, idle among all those implements of force and purpose, citified among the steel-toed boots and the work shirts. An odd place for a man to loiter who was so alive to embarrassment, so predisposed to sensing even the thought of rebuke. ~ Marilynne Robinson

Other Courtesies have been -
Other Courtesy may be -
We commend ourselves to thee
Paragon of Chivalry. ~ Emily Dickinson

It was his pleasure to strike up friendships within the servile classes, with children, with beggars, with animals, with plain women and forgotten men. His courtesies were always extended to those who did not expect courtesy: when he encountered a man whose station was beneath him, he was never rude. To the higher classes, however, he held himself apart. He was not ungracious, but his manner was jaded and wistful, even unimpressed - a practice that, though not a strategy in any real sense, tended to win him a great deal of respect, and earn him a place among the inheritors of land and fortune, quite as if he had set out to end up there. In this way Aubert Gascoigne, ~ Eleanor Catton

Small kindnesses, small courtesies, small considerations, habitually practised in our social intercourse, give a greater charm to the character than the display of great talents and accomplishments. ~ M.A.Kelty

No man gains credit for his cowardly courtesies. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Fortune, in fact, is a pestilent shrew, and, withal, an inexorable creditor; and though for a time she may be all smiles and courtesies, and indulge us in long credits, yet sooner or later she brings up her arrears with a vengeance, and washes out her scores with our tears. ~ Washington Irving

All the courtesies in the world do not cover up the one vital and massive discourtesy. ~ John Howard Griffin

I couldn't miss the irony, not as a forty-two-year-old native of the segregated South, still fighting to earn respect in the color-conscious world of American business. How often had my parents and grandparents, other family members and friends, and I myself been directed to the back door of a bus, a restaurant, or a theater because we were considered second class, even after paying a first-class price for service! But that night we were treated to courtesies that even President Nixon could not enjoy: entering through the lobby, approaching the front desk, quietly registering, and being assisted to our room by the highly trained wait staff. A familiar portion of a Bible verse came to mind. The last shall be first and the first last (Matt. 20:16). ~ John Barfield

I think dating courtesies are common courtesies that should be practiced in most all civilized encounters. I pine for the days of good, old-fashioned manners. ~ Karen Marie Moning

They circulated, exchanging greetings, making courtesies. Why can't these people wear nametags? Cordelia thought hopelessly. As usual, everyone but her seemed to know everyone else. She pictured herself opening a conversation: Hey you, Vor-guy - . She clutched Aral more firmly, and tried to look mysterious and exotic rather than tongue-tied and mislaid. They ~ Lois McMaster Bujold

Manhood is melted into courtesies, valor into compliment, and men are only turned into tongue, and trim ones, too. ~ William Shakespeare

It is necessary to realize that the most sacrosanct article of sexual politics in the period, the Victorian doctrine of chivalrous protection and its familiar protestations of respect, rests upon the tacit assumption, a cleverly expeditious bit of humbug, that all women were "ladies" - namely members of that fraction of the upper classes and bourgeoisie which treated women to expressions of elaborate concern, while permitting them no legal or personal freedom. The psycho-political tacit here is a pretense that the indolence and luxury of the upper-class woman's role in what Veblen called "vicarious consumption" was the happy lot of all women. The efficacy of this maneuver depends on dividing women by class and persuading the privileged that they live in an indulgence they scarcely deserve ... To succeed, both the sexual revolution and the Woman's Movement which led it would have to unmask chivalry and expose its courtesies as subtle manipulation. ~ Kate Millett

Let the realist not mind appearances. Let him delegate to others the costly courtesies and decorations of social life. The virtuesare economists, but some of the vices are also. Thus, next to humility, I have noticed that pride is a pretty good husband. A good pride is, as I reckon it, worth from five hundred to fifteen hundred a year. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

I think a platform is missing its go-go dancer, Sabine. Fey's brutal tone cut through our courtesies. ~ Andrea Cremer

But a favor has to be answered by another favor, and the courtesies became a chain that imprisoned us. ~ Elena Ferrante

Looking impressed. She turned and beckoned to a young man of seventeen or eighteen, who had been lurking in the background. He bore such a marked resemblance to his small, wiry, dark-haired father that his identity could scarcely be in doubt. "Manfred," his mother announced proudly. "Mein laddie." Jamie inclined his head in grave acknowledgment. "Mr. McGillivray." "Ah ... your s-servant, sir?" The boy sounded rather dubious about it, but put out his hand to be shaken. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance, sir," Jamie assured him, shaking it. The courtesies duly observed, he looked briefly round at the quiet surroundings, raising one eyebrow. "I had heard that you were suffering some inconvenience wi' regard to a thief-taker. Do I ~ Diana Gabaldon

The habit of attending to small things and of appreciating small courtesies is one of the important marks of a good person, ~ Nelson Mandela

Had they been dogs they would have sniffed me over and then drawn back. But humans have no such inbred courtesies. ~ Robin Hobb

The small courtesies sweeten life; the greater ennoble it. ~ Christian Nestell Bovee

We're told compassion comes not from generosity but from compliance. We're told kindness means raiding a man's hard-earned wages and sending them off to Washington so they - not you - may dole them out in courtesies and indulgences. ~ Allen West

When two people in a marriage are more concerned about getting the golden eggs, the benefits, than they are in preserving the relationship that makes them possible, they often become insensitive and inconsiderate, neglecting the little kindnesses and courtesies so important to a deep relationship. They begin to use control levers to manipulate each other, to focus on their own needs, to justify their own position and look for evidence to show the wrongness of the other person. The love, the richness, the softness and spontaneity begin to deteriorate. ~ Stephen R. Covey

The great psychologist Dr. George W. Crane said in his famous book Applied Psychology, "Remember, motions are the precursors of emotions. You can't control the latter directly but only through your choice of motions or actions. . . . To avoid this all too common tragedy (marital difficulties and misunderstandings) become aware of the true psychological facts. Go through the proper motions each day and you'll soon begin to feel the corresponding emotions! Just be sure you and your mate go through those motions of dates and kisses, the phrasing of sincere daily compliments, plus the many other little courtesies, and you need not worry about the emotion of love. You can't act devoted for very long without feeling devoted. ~ David J. Schwartz

A man who understands decorum and the courtesies is a great treasure; I hope to train and send into society as many such men as I can. ~ Mas Oyama

Small courtesies were the lubricant of daily life. ~ Robert Jordan

Our lives are also fed by kind words and gracious behaviour. We are nourished by expressions like 'excuse me', and other such simple courtesies. Our spirits are richly fed on compliments just as our bodies are on whole wheat bread. ~ Edward M Hays

Half-way there, a touch of his normal common sense returned to him and he slowed down, wondering what exchange of courtesies he was going to offer a vagabond, an Abram man, or an idiot. Then the man turned his head and Richard saw that he was none of these things. That the frieze cloak he wore was rich, and fell back from the silk of a high-collared tunic; that his hair, flicked by the wind, was yellow as mustard and the shadowless face, faintly engraved upon and tired as cered linen, was indeed that of Francis his brother.

Lymond did not move. His head lifted, watching, showed no conventional welcome; his brows, cloudily drawn, suggested the weight of something so firmly extinguished that nothing was left, in thought or expression, save a curious air, part of resignation, part of defiance which had to do, perhaps, with his stillness. Only the edge of his cloak stirred tardily, with his inaudible breathing. His parted lips closing, Richard Crawford came to a halt and stood, looking down at his brother.

'There is not a soul but over it is a keeper,' Lymond said. 'Welcome, brother.' ~ Dorothy Dunnett

If ever I should affect injustice, it would be in this, that I might do courtesies and receive none. ~ Owen Feltham

How the little courtesies of life on the surface of society, deemed so important from man towards woman, fade into utter insignificance in view of the deeper tragedies in which she must play her part alone, where no human aid is possible. ~ Elizabeth Cady Stanton

My father's boots went ahead. His boots were to me as unique and familiar, as much an index to himself, as his face was. When he had taken them off they stood in a corner of the kitchen, giving off a complicated smell of manure, machine oil, caked black mud, and the ripe disintegrating material that lined their soles. They were a part of himself, temporarily discarded, waiting. They had an expression that was dogged and uncompromising, even brutal, and I thought of that as part of my father's look, the counterpart of his face, with its readiness for jokes and courtesies. Nor did that brutality surprise me; my father came back to us always, to my mother and me from places where our judgment could not follow. ~ Alice Munro