157 Social norms Quotes

When cowardice becomes a fashion its adherents are without number, and it masquerades as forbearance, reasonableness and whatnot.

Do not adjust your sandals while passing through a melon-field, nor yet arrange your hat beneath an orange-tree.

His courtesy was somewhat extravagant. He would write and thank people who wrote to thank him for wedding presents and when he encountered anyone as punctilious as himself the correspondence ended only with death.

There's a right way of doing things and a wrong way. If you've made up your mind to be different from everybody else, I don't suppose I can stop you, but I really don't think it's very considerate.

Get well cards have become so humorous that if you don't get sick you're missing half the fun.

Writing, madam, is a mechanic part of wit. A gentleman should never go beyond a song or a billet.

She [Comedy] it is who proposes the correcting of pretentiousness, of inflation, of dulness, and of the vestiges of rawness and grossness to be found among us. She is the ultimate civilizer, the polisher, a sweet cook.

Like Rousseau, whom he resembles even more than he resembles Voltaire, Shaw never gave a social form to his assertiveness, never desired to arrive and to assimilate himself, or wield authority as of right.

Don't knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn't start a conversation if it didn't change once in a while.

Nobody can be as agreeable as an uninvited guest.

To be on foot in the United States is only immoral, not illegal.

When women let their hair down, it means either sexiness or craziness or death, the three by Victorian times having become virtually synonymous.

I have a respect for manners as such, they are a way of dealing with people you don't agree with or like.

Bad taste is simply saying the truth before it should be said.

Teas, Where small talk dies in agonies.

You have to be taught to leave us alone. Leave us alone.

I don't belong to any club or group. I don't fish, cook, dance, endorse books, sign books, co-sign declarations, eat oysters, get drunk, go to church, go to analysts, or take part in demonstrations.

Maybe the only thing worse than having to give gratitude constantly is having to accept it.

Thou shalt not covet, but tradition Approves all forms of competition.

At one campus where I was lecturing, I asked a friend, 'How many of my colleagues know I'm gay?' He answered, 'All of them.' I wasn't surprised. But, just the same, it was kind of spooky, because not one of them had ever given me the faintest sign that he or she knew. If I had spoken about it myself, most of them would have felt it was in bad taste.

The trouble with most Englishwomen is that they will dress as if they had been a mouse in a previous incarnation... they do not want to attract attention.

A gloomy guest fits not a wedding feast.

I don't want to talk grammar, I want to talk like a lady.

Who decides when the applause should die down? It seems like it's a group decision; everyone begins to say to themselves at the same time, 'Well, okay, that's enough of that.'

On a very rough-and-ready basis we might define an eccentric as a man who is a law unto himself, and a crank as one who, having determined what the law is, insists on laying it down to others. An eccentric puts ice cream on steak simply because he likes it; should a crank do so, he would endow the act with moral grandeur and straightaway denounce as sinners (or reactionaries) all who failed to follow suit [:] Cranks, at their most familiar, are a sort of peevish prophets, and it's not enough that they should be in the right; others must also be in the wrong.

He is the very pineapple of politeness!

A bumper of good liquor Will end a contest quicker Than justice, judge, or vicar.

'In many people it is already an impertinence to say 'I'.'

'Hard work is damn near as overrated as monogamy.'

As a child, I was taught that it was bad manners to bring attention to yourself, and to never, ever make a spectacle of yourself... All of which I've earned a living doing.

A man is as good as he has to be, and a woman as bad as she dares.

In the dying world I come from, quotation is a national vice. No one would think of making an after-dinner speech without the help of poetry. It used to be the classics, now it's lyric verse.

[to Veronica Corningstone] I'm gonna shoot you with a BB gun when you're not looking. Yep, back of the head.

The room is startin' to spin real fast...cause of...cause of gayness.

Horse-play, romping, frequent and loud fits of laughter, jokes, waggery, and indiscriminate familiarity, will sink both merit and knowledge into a degree of contempt. They compose at most a merry fellow; and a merry fellow was never yet a respectable man.

I am finding the inherent politeness of this place quite destabilising. Having come from a House where politeness is about as rare as an orderly queue at a London bus stop, the culture shock on entering your Lordships' House has been profound. Indeed, such relentless politeness is not merely destabilising, but positively exhausting.

I spoke to my young host: 'If you would, tell me the meaning of the bronze figure in the shape of shameful parts hanging from the man's belt. I had seen a number of them at court when I was living in a cage, but as I was almost always in the company of the Queen's daughters, I was afraid I might show disrespect to the women and their social status if I brought up such a gross subject of conversation in their presence. 'Here, neither females nor males are so ungrateful as to blush at the sight of what has given them being; and virgins are not ashamed to like to see us wear the only thing that goes by that name, as a token of mother nature. 'The sash that honors that man carries a medallion in the form of a virile member. It is the sign of a nobleman and distinguishes the noble from the commoner.' I admit that this paradox seemed so outlandish that I could not keep from laughing at it. 'This custom seems quite extraordinary to me,' I said to my young host, 'because in our world the mark of nobility is to wear a sword.' He replied calmly, 'O little man, how insane the nobles of your world must be if they pride themselves on a tool used by executioners, one that is made only to destroy and that is, in the end, the sworn enemy of all that lives. And they hide, on the contrary, a part of the body without which we would not exist, one that is the Prometheus of every animal and tirelessly repairs the weaknesses of nature! How unfortunate a country is where the marks of generation are ignominious and those of annihilation are honorable! And you call that member one of the 'shameful parts', as though anything were more glorious than to give life and anything more infamous than to take it away.'

By definition, the conventional wisdom of the day is widely accepted, continually reiterated and regarded not as ideology but as reality itself. Rebelling against 'reality,' even when its limitations are clearly perceived, is always difficult. It means deciding things can be different and ought to be different; that your own perceptions are right and the experts and authorities wrong; that your discontent is legitimate and not merely evidence of selfishness, failure or refusal to grow up. Recognizing that 'reality' is not inevitable makes it more painful; subversive thoughts provoke the urge to subversive action. But such action has consequences - rebels risk losing their jobs, failing in school, incurring the wrath of parents and spouses, suffering social ostracism. Often vociferous conservatism is sheer defensiveness: People are afraid to be suckers, to get their hopes up, to rethink their hard-won adjustments, to be branded bad or crazy.

The electrical, the magnetic element in Woman has not been fairly brought out at any period. Everything might be expected from it; she has far more of it than Man. This is commonly expressed by saying that her intuitions are more rapid and more correct. You will often see men of high intellect absolutely stupid in regard to the atmospheric changes, the fine invisible links which connect the forms of life around them, while common women, if pure and modest, so that a vulgar self do not overshadow the mental eye, will seize and delineate these with unerring discrimination. Women who combine this organization with creative genius are very commonly unhappy at present. They see too much to act in conformity with those around them, and their quick impulses seem folly to those who do not discern the motives. This is an usual effect of the apparition of genius, whether in Man or Woman, but is more frequent with regard to the latter, because a harmony, an obvious order and self-restraining decorum, is most expected from her. Then women of genius, even more than men, are likely to be enslaved by an impassioned sensibility. The world repels them more rudely, and they are of weaker bodily frame. Those who seem overladen with electricity frighten those around them.

Some folks just can't figure out when to shut up and say thank you I feel sorry for folks like that

Husbands are usually so overrated

Customs do not concern themselves with right or wrong or reason. But they have to be obeyed; one reasons all around them until he is tired, but he must not transgress them, it is sternly forbidden.

I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying that I approved of it.

The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year.

Britney Spears got those ta-tas, man, bodacious as all get out, lookin' fine, butt's real nice, and I'm not even supposed to be grippin' the pony on Main Street.

Do your daughters wax? Do they Playboy wax?

My father worked in the circus. He was a circus clown. And my mother was a prostitute.

She had the audacity to order corn on the cob on the first date... so this woman is now out of my life.

In nine cases out of ten, a woman had better show more affection than she feels.

If you treat people right they will treat you right... ninety percent of the time.

Sociability is just a big smile, and a big smile is nothing but teeth.

It's pretty hard to be efficient without being obnoxious.

A gentleman is a man who never hurts anybody else unintentionally.

Harvey: Elwood P. Dowd

Did you hit the retard?

Ewald von Kleist was an officer and a gentleman in an era when such characteristics were liabilities.

Handle gut und anstandig, weniger anderen zu gefallen, eher um deine eigene Achtung nicht zu verscherzen.

If nobody minds, it doesn't matter.

Heiraten und Nahnadeln mussen die Frauenzimmer einfadeln.

The author who speaks about his own books is almost as bad as a mother who talks about her own children.

If a man be gloomy let him keep to himself. No one has the right to go croaking about society, or what is worse, looking as if he stifled grief.

People come up to me and say, 'What's wrong?' 'Nothing.' 'Well, it takes more energy to frown than it does to smile.' 'Yeah, you know it takes more energy to point that out than it does to leave me alone?'

The only reason I don't quit smoking is because I fear that if I did, I'd become one of you.

And the sad act like lepers They stick to the shadows They long to ring bells of warning To tell of their coming So that the pure can shut their doors.

Excuse me, I have to go to the ladies room. Actually, I need to make a telephone call, I was just too embarrassed to say.

Is there anything in the world more annoyingly creepy than an unspoken dress code?

You know what? When you read a book, you're totally lost in your own private world, and society says that's a good and wonderful thing. But if you play a game by yourself, it's this weird, fucked-up, socially damaging activity.

If women fall over wearing heels, that's embarrassing; but if a bloke falls over wearing heels, then you have to kill yourself! End of your life!

'So, what's my point? And racist people, interestingly are never as polite as smokers. Have you noticed that?

Le trop grand empressement qu'on a de s'acquitter d'une obligation est une espece d'ingratitude.

Rien n'empeche tant d'etre naturel que l'envie de le paraitre.

De toutes les passions violentes, celle qui sied le moins mal aux femmes, c'est l'amour.

A man that should call every thing by its right Name, would hardly pass the Streets without being knock'd down as a common Enemy.

They still say 'fuck you' as a venomous insult; they still find 'cunt' the most degrading epithet outside the dictionary.

When I invite a woman to dinner I expect her to look at my face. That's the price she has to pay!

'I see you are looking at my feet,' he said to her when car was in motion. 'I beg your pardon?' said the woman. 'I said I see you're looking at my feet'. 'I beg your pardon. I happened to be looking at the floor,' said the woman, and faced the doors of the car. 'If you want to look at my feet, say so,' said the young man. 'But don't be a God-damned sneak about it.' 'Let me out here, please,' the woman said quickly to the girl operating the car. The car doors opened and the woman got out without looking back. 'I have two normal feet and I can't see the slightest God-damned reason why anybody should stare at them,' said the young man.

Sophistication might be described as the ability to cope gracefully with a situation involving the presence of a formidable menace to one's poise and prestige (such as the butler, or the man under the bed - but never the husband).

Be a constant outrage to modesty There is nothing to fear: modesty is exercised only among the blind.

It is necessary to make virtue fashionable.

If written directions alone would suffice, libraries wouldn't need to have the rest of the universities attached.

Look at him eat soup, that's fucked up...

Burglars! Good gracious!' cried the little woman, springing from the bed in one bound. The word 'burglar' was a terrible one to her, as it is indeed, to every well-constituted woman. 'Robbery' does not sound nearly so awe-inspiring.

'But girls often marry when they are too young,' exclaimed Mary-Marie quickly; 'so, if you don't object to my age - '

'Pray, my dear,' quoth my mother, 'have you not forgot to wind up the clock?' - 'Good G-!' cried my father, making an exclamation, but taking care to moderate his voice at the same time, - 'Did ever woman, since the creation of the world, interrupt a man with such a silly question?'

Of all the cants which are canted in this canting world, - though the cant of hypocrites may be the worst, - the cant of criticism is the most tormenting!

I'm afraid I'm not sufficiently inhibited about the things that other women are inhibited about for me. They feel that you've given away trade secrets.

The theater is the only branch of art much cared for by people of wealth; like canasta, it does away with the bother of talk after dinner.

The bashful virgin's sidelong looks of love, The matron's glance that would those looks reprove.

Oh sir! I must not tell my age. They say women and music should never be dated.

Being natural is simply a pose, and the most irritating pose I know.

The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her if she is pretty and to someone else if she is plain.

Politeness is organized indifference.