Quotations on Courtesy

Intelligence and courtesy not always are combined;
Often in a wooden house a golden room we find.

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Life is not so short but that there is always time for courtesy.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

True politeness consists in being easy one's self, and in making every one about one as easy as one can.

~ Alexander Pope

There is a courtesy of the heart; it is allied to love. From it springs the purest courtesy in the outward behavior.

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love.

~ Basil

Nothing is ever lost by courtesy. It is the cheapest of the pleasures; costs nothing and conveys much. It pleases him who gives and him who receives, and thus, like mercy, it is twice blessed.

~ Erastus Wiman

The courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest to the grateful and appreciating heart.

~ Henry Clay

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

~ Henry Clay

Small kindnesses, small courtesies, small considerations, habitually practiced, give a greater charm to the character than the display of great talents and accomplishments.

~ Mary Ann Kelty

Courtesy is a silver lining around the dark clouds of civilization; it is the best part of refinement and in many ways, an art of heroic beauty in the vast gallery of man's cruelty and baseness.

~ C. Northcote Parkinson

Courtesy is a science of the highest importance. It is ... opening a door that we may derive instruction from the example of others, and at the same time enabling us to benefit them by our example, if there be anything in our character worthy of imitation.

~ Michel de Montaigne

If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world.

~ Sir Francis Bacon

To speak kindly does not hurt the tongue.

~ Proverbs

The small courtesies sweeten life; the greater ennoble it.

~ Christian Nestell Bovee

Men, like bullets, go farthest when they are smoothest.

~ Jean Paul Richter