"Good manners are the settled medium of social, as specie is of commercial, life; returns are equally expected for both." - LORD CHESTERFIELD, Letters to His Son

"Good manners are made up of petty sacrifices." - RALPH WALDO EMERSON, Letters and Social Aims

"Life is not so short but that there is always time enough for courtesy." - RALPH WALDO EMERSON, Letters and Social Aims

"In truth, politeness is artificial good humour, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue." - THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter (1808)

"Tact is after all a kind of mind reading." - SARAH ORNE JEWETT, The Country of the Pointed Firs and Other Stories

"There can be no defense like elaborate courtesy." - E.V. LUCAS, Reading, Writing, and Remembering

"At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely." - W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM, A Writer's Notebook

"Civility costs nothing and buys everything." - LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU, letter (1756)

"Politeness is the art of choosing among one's real thoughts." - ABEL STEVENS, Life of Mme. de Sta