Quotable Quotes (10 page)

—
O
.
A
.
B
ATTISTA

 

Any kid who has two parents who are interested in him and has a houseful of books isn't poor.

—
S
AM
L
EVENSON

 

Sometimes the poorest man leaves his children the richest inheritance.

—
R
UTH
E
.
R
ENKEL

in
National Enquirer

 

The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence.

—
D
ENIS
W
AITLEY

 

A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty.

—
Spotlight (
Boise, Idaho)

 

I have found that the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want, and then advise them to do it.

—
H
ARRY
S
.
T
RUMAN

 

If a child lives with approval, he learns to like himself.

—
D
OROTHY
L
AW
N
OLTE

 

Parents need to fill a child's bucket of self-esteem so high that the rest of the world can't poke enough holes in it to drain it dry.

—
A
LVIN
P
RICE

 

Every adult needs a child to teach; it's the way adults learn.

—
F
RANK
A
.
C
LARK

 

Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them.

—
L
ADY
B
IRD
J
OHNSON

 

If you can't hold children in your arms, please hold them in your heart.

—
M
OTHER
C
LARA
H
ALE

 

You cannot train a horse with shouts and expect it to obey a whisper.

—
D
AGOBERT
D
.
R
UNES

Letters to My Son

 

What's done to children, they will do to society.

—
D
R.
K
ARL
M
ENNINGER

 

What a father says to his children is not heard by the world; but it will be heard by posterity.

—
J
EAN
P
AUL
R
ICHTER

 

Never fear spoiling children by making them too happy. Happiness is the atmosphere in which all good affections grow.

—
T
HOMAS
B
RAY

 

The only thing worth stealing is a kiss from a sleeping child.

—
J
OE
H
OULDSWORTH

 

M
ANNERS ARE THE HAPPY WAY 
. . .

 

Manners are the happy way of doing things.

—
R
ALPH
W
ALDO
E
MERSON

 

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.

—
E
MILY
P
OST

 

Most arts require long study and application, but the most useful of all, that of pleasing, requires only the desire.

—
L
ORD
C
HESTERFIELD

 

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

—
R
ALPH
W
ALDO
E
MERSON

 

Politeness is the art of selecting among one's real thoughts.

—
M
ADAME DE
S
TAËL

 

To have a respect for ourselves guides our morals; to have a deference for others governs our manners.

—
L
AURENCE
S
TERNE

 

Manners are like the zero in arithmetic; they may not be much in themselves, but they are capable of adding a great deal to the value of everything else.

—
F
REYA
S
TARK

The Journey's Echo

 

Etiquette is getting sleepy in company and not showing it.

—
H
YMAN
M
AXWELL
B
ERSTON

 

You can get through life with bad manners, but it's easier with good manners.

—
L
ILLIAN
G
ISH

 

Diplomacy gets you out of what tact would have kept you out of.

—
B
RIAN
B
OWLING

 

The point of tact is not sharp.

—
C
OLLEEN
C
ARNEY

 

People with tact have less to retract.

—
A
RNOLD
H
.
G
LASOW

 

Tact consists in knowing how far we may go too far.

—
J
EAN
C
OCTEAU

A Call to Order

 

Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.

—
H
OWARD
W
.
N
EWTON

 

Tact is the art of making guests feel at home when that's really where you wish they were.

—
G
EORGE
E
.
B
ERGMAN

in
Good Housekeeping

 

Tact is rubbing out another's mistake instead of rubbing it in.

—
Farmers' Almanac

 

Tact is the art of recognizing when to be big and when not to belittle.

—
B
ILL
C
OPELAND

 

Tact is the ability to stay in the middle without getting caught there.

—
F
RANKLIN
P
.
J
ONES

 

Tact is the art of convincing people that they know more than you do.

—
R
AYMOND
M
ORTIMER

 

Tact is the art of building a fire under people without making their blood boil.

—
F
RANKLIN
P
.
J
ONES

 

Never insult an alligator until after you have crossed the river.

—
C
ORDELL
H
ULL

 

The truly free man is he who knows how to decline a dinner invitation without giving an excuse.

—
J
ULES
R
ENARD

 

Every generation is convinced there has been a deplorable breakdown of manners.

—
B
YRON
D
OBELL

in
American Heritage

 

To be agreeable in society, you must consent to be taught many things which you already know.

—
T
ALLEYRAND

 

It takes a lot of thought and effort and downright determination to be agreeable.

—
R
AY
D
.
E
VERSON

 

Praise is like champagne; it should be served while it is still bubbling.

—
Robins Reader

 

Charm is the quality in others that makes us more satisfied with ourselves.

—
H
ENRI
F
RÉDÉRIC
A
MIEL

 

A gentleman is a man who uses a butter knife when dining alone.

—
W
.
F
.
D
ETTLE

 

Nothing prevents us from being natural so much as the desire to appear so.

—
F
RANÇOIS DE
L
A
R
OCHEFOUCAULD

 

It is a great mistake for men to give up paying compliments, for when they give up saying what is charming, they give up thinking what is charming.

—
O
SCAR
W
ILDE

 

Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax.

—
A
RTHUR
S
CHOPENHAUER

 

He who says what he likes, hears what he does not like.

—
L
EONARD
L
OUIS
L
EVINSON

 

The manner in which it is given is worth more than the gift.

—
P
IERRE
C
ORNEILLE

 

To receive a present handsomely and in a right spirit, even when you have none to give in return, is to give one in return.

—
L
EIGH
H
UNT

Essays by Leigh Hunt

 

It is much easier to be a hero than a gentleman.

—
L
UIGI
P
IRANDELLO

 

Never claim as a right what you can ask as a favor.

—
J
OHN
C
HURTON
C
OLLINS

 

To err is human; to refrain from laughing, humane.

—
L
ANE
O
LINGHOUSE

A
CONTINENT OF UNDISCOVERED CHARACTER . . .

 

Every one of us has in him a continent of undiscovered character. Blessed is he who acts the Columbus to his own soul
.

—Quoted in
Words of Life
, edited by

Charles L. Wallis

 

Character is a strange blending of flinty strength and pliable warmth.

—
R
OBERT
S
HAFFER

 

No man knows his true character until he has run out of gas, purchased something on the installment plan, and raised an adolescent.

—
E
DNA
M
C
C
ANN

The Heritage Book 1985

 

Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the small ones.

—
P
HILLIPS
B
ROOKS

 

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

—
A
BRAHAM
L
INCOLN

 

Everyone journeys through character as well as through time. The person one becomes depends on the person one has been.

—
D
ICK
F
RANCIS

A Jockey's Life: The Biography of Lester Piggott

 

Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.

—
J
AMES
M
ICHENER

Chesapeake

 

You can measure a man by the opposition it takes to discourage him.

—
R
OBERT
C
.
S
AVAGE

Life Lessons

 

We know what a person thinks not when he tells us what he thinks, but by his actions.

—
I
SAAC
B
ASHEVIS
S
INGER

in
The New York Times Magazine

 

Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.

—
K
URT
V
ONNEGUT

Hocus Pocus

 

Men are men before they are lawyers, or physicians, or merchants, or manufacturers; and if you make them capable and sensible men, they will make themselves capable and sensible lawyers or physicians.

—
J
OHN
S
TUART
M
ILL

 

The severest test of character is not so much the ability to keep a secret as it is, when the secret is finally out, to refrain from disclosing that you knew it all along.

—
S
YDNEY
J
.
H
ARRIS

 

Show me the man you honor, and I will know what kind of man you are.

—
T
HOMAS
C
ARLYLE

 

People need responsibility. They resist assuming it, but they cannot get along without it.

—
J
OHN
S
TEINBECK

in
Saturday Review

 

If anyone thinks he has no responsibilities, it is because he has not sought them out.

—
M
ARY
L
YON

 

Duty is a very personal thing. It is what comes from knowing the need to take action and not just a need to urge others to do something.

—
M
OTHER
T
ERESA OF
C
ALCUTTA

 

Our concern is not how to worship in the catacombs, but rather how to remain human in the skyscrapers.

—
R
ABBI
A
BRAHAM
J
OSHUA
H
ESCHEL

The Insecurity of Freedom

 

The treacherous, unexplored areas of the world are not in continents or the seas; they are in the minds and hearts of men.

—
A
LLEN
E
.
C
LAXTON

 

The truth about a man is, first of all, what it is that he keeps hidden.

—
A
NDRÉ
M
ALRAUX

 

Men show their character in nothing more clearly than by what they think laughable.

—
J
OHANN
W
OLFGANG VON
G
OETHE

 

You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.

—
P
LATO

 

There are two insults no human being will endure: that he has no sense of humor, and that he has never known trouble.

—
S
INCLAIR
L
EWIS

 

Sports do not build character. They reveal it.

—
H
EYWOOD
H
ALE
B
ROUN

 

How a man plays the game shows something of his character; how he loses shows all of it.

—
Tribune
(Camden County, Georgia)

 

In our play we reveal what kind of people we are.

—
O
VID

 

You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him.

—
L
EO
A
IKMAN

 

Character is what you know you are, not what others think you are.

—
M
ARVA
C
OLLINS AND
C
IVIA
T
AMARKIN

Marva Collins' Way

 

You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.

—
J
AMES
D
.
M
ILES

 

Character is much easier kept than recovered.

—
T
HOMAS
P
AINE

 

The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.

—
S
OCRATES

 

A good reputation is better than fame.

—
L
OUIS
D
UDEK

Epigrams

 

Reputation is character minus what you've been caught doing.

—
M
ICHAEL
I
APOCE

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Boardroom

 

Life is for one generation; a good name is forever.

—
J
APANESE PROVERB

 

To have lost your reputation is to be dead among the living.

—
S
.
H
.
S
IMMONS

 

Modesty is to merit what shade is to figures in a picture; it gives it strength and makes it stand out.

—
J
EAN DE LA
B
RUYÈRE

 

Modesty is the clothing of talent.

—
P
IERRE
V
ERON

 

He who is slowest in making a promise is most faithful in its performance.

—
J
EAN
J
ACQUES
R
OUSSEAU

 

The only way to make a man trustworthy is to trust him.

—
H
ENRY
L
.
S
TIMSON

in
Harper's Magazine

 

Willpower is being able to eat just one salted peanut.

—
P
AT
E
LPHINSTONE

 

The best discipline, maybe the only discipline that really works, is self-discipline.

—
W
ALTER
K
IECHEL
III

in
Fortune

 

You can find on the outside only what you possess on the inside.

—
A
DOLFO
M
ONTIEL
B
ALLESTEROS

La Honda y La Flor

 

In great matters men show themselves as they wish to be seen; in small matters, as they are.

—
G
AMALIEL
B
RADFORD

 

What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.

—
R
ALPH
W
ALDO
E
MERSON

 

I see God in every human being.

—
M
OTHER
T
ERESA OF
C
ALCUTTA

 

Men may be divided almost any way we please, but I have found the most useful distinction to be made between those who devote their lives to conjugating the verb “to be,” and those who spend their lives conjugating the verb “to have.”

—
S
YDNEY
J
.
H
ARRIS

 

There is more simplicity in the man who eats caviar on impulse than in the man who eats Grape Nuts on principle.

—
G
.
K
.
C
HESTERTON

 

One of the best ways to measure people is to watch the way they behave when something free is offered.

—
A
NN
L
ANDERS

 

Say not you know a man entirely till you have divided an inheritance with him.

—
J
OHANN
K
ASPAR
L
AVATER

 

Not what I have but what I do is my kingdom.

—
T
HOMAS
C
ARLYLE

 

The reputation of a thousand years may be determined by the conduct of one hour.

—
J
APANESE PROVERB

 

Fame is the perfume of heroic deeds.

—
S
OCRATES

 

Dollars have never been known to produce character, and character will never be produced by money.

—
W
.
K
.
K
ELLOGG

I'll Invest My Money in People

 

One isn't born one's self. One is born with a mass of expectations, a mass of other people's ideas—and you have to work through it all.

—
V
.
S
.
N
AIPAUL

 

Don't laugh at a youth for his affectations; he is only trying on one face after another to find a face of his own.

—
L
OGAN
P
EARSALL
S
MITH

 

It has amazed me that the most incongruous traits should exist in the same person and, for all that, yield a plausible harmony.

—
W
.
S
OMERSET
M
AUGHAM

 

We spend our time searching for security and hate it when we get it.

—
J
OHN
S
TEINBECK

America and Americans

 

Without heroes, we are all plain people and don't know how far we can go.

—
B
ERNARD
M
ALAMUD

The Natural

 

The great man is he who does not lose his child-heart.

—
M
ENCIUS

 

No great scoundrel is ever uninteresting.

—
M
URRAY
K
EMPTON

in
Newsday
(Long Island, New York)

 

Characters live to be noticed. People with character notice how they live.

—
N
ANCY
M
OSER

 

Man is harder than iron, stronger than stone and more fragile than a rose.

—
T
URKISH PROVERB

 

He is ill clothed that is bare of virtue.

—
B
ENJAMIN
F
RANKLIN

 

All of us are experts at practicing virtue at a distance.

—
T
HEODORE
M
.
H
ESBURGH

 

To err is human; to blame it on the other guy is even more human.

—
B
OB
G
ODDARD

 

Man is the only kind of varmint sets his own trap, baits it, then steps in it.

—
J
OHN
S
TEINBECK

Sweet Thursday

 

There's man all over for you, blaming on his boots the faults of his feet.

—
S
AMUEL
B
ECKETT

Waiting for Godot

 

A
N OPTIMIST STAYS UP UNTIL MIDNIGHT 
. . .

 

An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.

—
B
ILL
V
AUGHAN

in Kansas City
Star

 

Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.