"Manners are the happy way of doing things; each once a stroke of genius or of love -- now repeated and hardened into usage. They form at last a rich varnish, with which the routine of life is washed, and its details adorned. If they are superficial, so are the dewdrops which give such depth to the morning meadows."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Manners easily and rapidly mature into morals."
-- Horace Mann

"If you ever find yourself in a situation in which following a formal [etiquette] rule would be manifestly unkind, forget it, and be kind instead."
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
(from her wonderful book "Eleanor Roosevelt's Book of Common Sense Etiquette," one of my favorite etiquette books)

"Conversation . . . is the art of never appearing a bore, of knowing how to say everything interestingly, to entertain with no matter what, to be charming with nothing at all."
-- Guy de Maupassant

"In the thoughtful exercise of personal freedom, we might choose to defy standards to which others defer, yet, if the community is to survive, 'I don't feel like it' must not be taken as sufficient objection. If we are less civil than we should be, one reason is surely that we have confused injustice with inconvenience."
-- Stephen L. Carter, "Civility"

"A position of dignity is more easily improved upon than acquired."
-- Publilius Syrus

"Don't reserve your best behavior for special occasions. You can't have two sets of manners, two social codes -- one for those you admire and want to impress, another for those whom you consider unimportant. You must be the same to all people."
-- Lillian Eichler Watson

"You can't be truly rude until you understand good manners."
-- Rita Mae Brown

"When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite."
-- Winston Churchill

"Of course I lie to people. But I lie altruistically -- for our mutual good. The lie is the basic building block of good manners. That may seem mildly shocking to a moralist -- but then what isn’t?"
-- Quentin Crisp

"Allowing an unimportant mistake to pass without comment is a wonderful social grace."
-- Judith Martin

"There is no beautifier of complexion, or form, or behavior, like the wish to scatter joy and not pain around us. 'Tis good to give a stranger a meal, or a night's lodging. 'Tis better to be hospitable to his good meaning and thought, and give courage to a companion. We must be as courteous to a man as we are to a picture, which we are willing to give the advantage of a good light."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Politeness is the art of choosing among one's real thoughts."
-- Abel Stevens

"If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from others lands, but a continent that joins to them."
-- Francis Bacon

"While we eat to live, how we eat ties us closer together. From correct form at a Ugandan beer party to table talk in Katmandu, dining is a social act. A meal is a drama in which our social mores are exhibited. Manners are meant to take into account the sensibilities and needs of fellow diners and to protect us from roughness, greed, and the baser instincts."
-- Margaret Visser (from her wonderful book "The Rituals of Dinner")

"Dining with one's friends and beloved family is certainly one of life's primal and most innocent delights, one that is both soul-satisfying and eternal."
-- Julia Child

"One of the greatest victories you can gain over someone is to beat him at politeness."
-- Josh Billings

"Etiquette requires us to admire the human race."
-- Mark Twain

"A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter is not a nice person."
-- Dave Barry

"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."
-- Emily Post

"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much."
-- Oscar Wilde

"At a dinner party, one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely."
-- W. Somerset Maugham

"Never eat more than you can lift."
-- Miss Piggy

"Never look down on anybody unless you're helping him up."
-- Jesse Jackson

"We cannot always oblige, but we can always speak obligingly."
-- Voltaire

"Nothing in the world is single,
All things by a law divine
In one spirit meet and mingle."
-- Percy Bysshe Shelley

"Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength."
-- Eric Hoffer

"The great secret, Eliza, is not having bad manners or good manners or any other particular sort of manners, but having the same manner for all human souls: in short, behaving as if you were in Heaven, where there are no third-class carriages, and one soul is as good as another."
-- George Bernard Shaw, "Pygmalion," act 5

"The test of a man’s or woman’s breeding is how they behave in a quarrel. Anybody can behave well when things are going smoothly."
-- George Bernard Shaw

"Friends and good manners will carry you where money won't go."
-- Margaret Walker

"Cleanliness and order are not matters of instinct; they are matters of education, and like most great things, you must cultivate a taste for them."
-- Benjamin Disraeli

"Unfaithfulness in the keeping of an appointment is an act of clear dishonesty. You may as well borrow a person's money as his time."
-- Horace Mann

"Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something."
-- Henry David Thoreau