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.

What is an elegant woman? An elegant woman is a woman who despises you and who has no hair under her arms.

And how does gravity work? And if it were to cease suddenly, would certain restaurants still require a jacket?

It is very well to say 'be prudent, be careful, try to know each other.' But how are you to know each other? Unless a woman had lost all pride, how is it possible for her, under the eyes of all her family, to indulge in long exclusive conversations with a man? 'Such a thing' must not take place till after her 'engagement.' And how is she to make an engagement, if 'such a thing' has not taken place?

I understand, of course, that many people find smoking objectionable. That is their right. I would, I assure you, be the very last to criticize the annoyed. I myself find many-- even most-- things objectionable. Being offended is the natural consequence of leaving one's home. I do not like aftershave lotion, adults who roller-skate, children who speak French, or anyone who is unduly tan. I do not, however, go around enacting legislation and putting up signs. In private I avoid such people; in public they have the run of the place. I stay at home as much as possible, and so should they. When it is necessary, however, to go out of the house, they must be prepared, as I am, to deal with the unpleasant personal habits of others. That is what 'public' means.

I wouldn't have ate it, only I'm too lady-like to take it out of my mouth.

You had to be rude at least sometimes and edgy often to be credited with 'personality,' and without that accolade no one at Devon could be anyone. No one, with the exception of course of Phineas.

A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends; and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter.

Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.

I think that people should mate for life, like pigeons or Catholics.

Society, in the aggregate, is no fool. It is astonishing what an amount of 'eccentricity' it will stand from anybody who takes the bull by the horns, too fearless or too indifferent to think of consequences. ~ Ch. 9

If we mean our future guardians to regard the habit of quarrelling among themselves as of all things the basest, should any word be said to them of the wars in heaven, and of the plots and fightings of the gods against one another, for they are not true. No, we shall never mention the battles of the giants, or let them be embroidered on garments; and we shall be silent about the innumerable other quarrels of gods and heroes with their friends and relatives. If they would only believe us we would tell them that quarrelling is unholy, and that never up to this time has there been any quarrel between citizens; this is what old men and old women should being by telling children; and when they grow up, the poets also should be told to compose for them in a similar spirit.

Manners: 'Callousness and insolence bring to bare unanimous social condemnation, while the simple efforts of politeness are admired; even in those who are otherwise despised.'

Manners: 'Good manners are appreciated as much as bad manners are abhorred.'

They're looking for something dirty in everything, and if you're looking for something, you'll find it. You have to put up some kind of face for them, and that's the only face they understand.

'Cause every woman in here, ever since you were : every guy you met has been trying to fuck you. That's right. Women are offered dick every day. Every woman in here : gets offered dick at least three times a week. Three times a day, shit! That's right, every time a man's being nice to you : all he's doing is offering dick. That's all it is. 'Can I get that for you? - How about some dick?' 'Could I help you with that? - Could I help you to some dick?' - 'Do you need some dick?'

'White people do not like to talk about their policial affiliations. Its a secret. You ask a white guy who's he votin for, like 'Hey Bob, who you gonna vote for?' 'Dave! Dave, woah, woah woah. Take it easy. So I was fuckin my wife in her ass, right? And let me tell you, it was something else.' 'Yeah yeah, but who are you gonna vote for?' 'DAVE! Dave, come on with the voting! I'm trying to tell you about fucking my wife in the ass, and you're asking me all these personal questions.' '

Can I have a bite of your hamburger? Just don't tell the vegans...

Frances was a rebel when it wasn't fashionable - a free-thinking woman of the '30s and '40s whose outspoken nature, shocking language and anti-social behavior landed her in jails and mental institutions. ~ Rita Rose in The Indianapolis Star (23 January 1983)

You know something people don't talk about in public anymore? Pussy farts.

Politeness does not interfere with facts, politeness is just another fact.

I lived with Howard [Austen] for fifty years, but what we had was certainly not romantic love, not passionate love. And it certainly was nonsexual. Try to explain that to the fags.

'What's improper about it?' retorted the clerk. 'Everybody does it in Paris!' It was an irresistible and conclusive argument.

'So why do you flip off babies?'

Neither go to a wedding nor a christening unbid.

Prentice: It's ridiculous. I'm a married man. Match: Marriage excuses no one the freaks' roll-call.

A set of phrases learnt by rote; A passion for a scarlet coat; When at a play to laugh, or cry, Yet cannot tell the reason why: Never to hold her tongue a minute; While all she prates has nothing in it.

A lot of people don't want to talk about love and feelings and I'm always going around saying, 'Hey, let's talk about love!' I don't care. And if you think I'm crazy, that's wonderful, because when you think I'm crazy, that gives me lots of leeway for behavior.

On se doit assemer en robes et en armes en tel maniere que li preudome de cest siecle ne dient que on en face trop, ne les joenes gens de cest siecle ne dient que on en face peu.

If you've ever bought drugs before, you understand that for some bizarre reason you have to feign this relationship with your dealer. It's like you're not really going to him to buy drugs. You're going for a social visit. Drugs are the surprise that just happens when you get there. 'Oh Hash? I didn't know!' And he's talkin' to you and you're tryin' to be interested, you know, 'Oh yeah? No, really ... I love Foghat. No, seriously.' And inside you're like, 'Just fuckin' give it! I hate you. Your house smells like cat pee!' Why do all drug dealers' houses smell like cat pee?

I'm very inappropriate, which makes me a problem dinner guest, because at some point during the evening someone inevitably says, 'Okay, heh heh heh, okay, too much information! Heh heh heh. Don't go there!' I live there. I bought a house there.

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

Lift latch, step in, be welcome, Sir, Albeit to see you I'm unglad.

I order the club sandwich all the time, but I'm not even a member, man. I don't know how I get away with it.[4]

These are three concrete steps that, I believe, can readily be taken. Protect the material and strengthen verification. Control the fuel cycle. Accelerate disarmament efforts. But that is not enough. The hard part is: how do we create an environment in which nuclear weapons - like slavery or genocide - are regarded as a taboo and a historical anomaly?

Presently they saw their Mother coming out of the drawing-room with a visitor following her. Jane and Michael could see that the newcomer had shiny black hair - 'Rather like a wooden Dutch doll,' whispered Jane. And that she was thin, with large feet and hands, and small, rather peering blue-eyes. 'You'll find that they are very nice children,' Mrs. Banks was saying. Michael's elbow gave a sharp dig at Jane's ribs. 'And that they give no trouble at all,' continued Mrs. Banks uncertainly, as if she herself didn't really believe what she was saying. They heard the visitor sniff as though she didn't either. 'Now, about reference -' Mrs. Banks went on. 'Oh, I make it a rule never to give references,' said the other firmly.

People have expected less of movies and have been willing to settle for less. Some have even been willing to settle for Kramer vs. Kramer and other pictures that seem to be made for an audience of over-age flower children. These pictures express the belief that if a man cares about anything besides being at home with the kids, he's corrupt. Parenting ennobles Dustin Hoffman and makes him a better person in every way, while in The Seduction of Joe Tynan we can see that Alan Alda is a weak, corruptible fellow because he wants to be President of the United States more than he wants to stay at home communing with his daughter about her adolescent miseries. Pictures like these should all end with the fathers and the children sitting at home watching TV together.

No caparisons, miss, if you please. Caparisons don't become a young woman.

What they were most determined for me to swallow was my fellow creatures. In this they were without mercy. I remember little or nothing of these lectures. I cannot have understood a great deal. But I seem to have retained certain descriptions, in spite of myself. They gave me courses on love, on intelligence, most precious, most precious. They also taught me to count, and even to reason. Some of this rubbish has come in handy on occasions, I don't deny it, on occasions which would never have arisen if they had left me in peace. I use it still, to scratch my arse with.

I went into this bar and sat down next to a pretty girl. She looked at me and said, 'Hey, you have two different colored socks on.' I said, 'Yeah, I know, but to me they're the same because I go by thickness.'

[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.