When politeness is used to show up other people, it is reclassified as rudeness. Thus it is technically impossible to be too polite.

When you're in love, you put up with things that, when you're out of love you cite.

The challenge of manners is not so much to be nice to someone whose favor and/or person you covet (although more people need to be reminded of that necessity than one would suppose) as to be exposed to the bad manners of others without imitating them.

You do not have to do everything disagreeable that you have a right to do

Washington knows that it is not safe to kick people who are down until you find out what their next stop will be.

A small wedding is not necessarily one to which very few people are invited. It is one to which the person you are addressing is not invited.

People who put slipcovers, doilies, plastic protectors, and cellophane on everything good that they own rarely live to see an occasion so good that all these covers are removed.