7 Jonathan Swift Quotes on Manners

Jonathan Swift quotes on manners

10. And surely one of the best rules in conversation is, never to say a thing which any of the company can reasonably wish had been left unsaid:

23. For conversation well endued; She calls it witty to be rude; And, placing raillery in railing, Will tell aloud your greatest failing.

31. Conversation is but carving! Give no more to every guest Than he's able to digest. Give him always of the prime, And but little at a time. Carve to all but just enough, Let them neither starve nor stuff, And that you may have your due, Let your neighbor carve for you.

33. Good manners is the art of making those people easy with whom we converse. Whoever makes the fewest persons uneasy is the best bred in the company.

35. Pride, ill nature, and want of sense, are the three great sources of ill manners.

37. Nothing is so great an instance of ill manners as flattery. If you flatter all the company, you please none; if you flatter only one or two, you affront the rest.

42. A nice man is a man of nasty ideas.