50 Manners Quotes on the Importance of Good Etiquette

By Stephanie Kirby | Published October 13, 2023

Get inspired to remember your manners with these funny and insightful manners quotes!

According to dictionary.cambridge.org, manners are “ways of behaving toward people, especially ways that are socially correct and show respect for their comfort and their feelings.”

Generally, we learn manners from our parents, grandparents, or guardians.

However, many also learn manners from teachers, religious leaders, or watching peers.

Although many manners started from aristocratic life and may not apply to today’s world, there are many that still and always will exist.

Good manners are not only etiquette but also forms of kindness and reliability.

As we all work and live in this world, showing respect and courtesy to others allows everyone to live a better life.

Take a look at these manners quotes and make sure to always remember your manners!

Best Manners Quotes

Enjoy some of these classic manners quotes.

1. “Good manners don’t cost nothing.” — Lemmy

2. “Manners are the basic building blocks of civil society.” — Alexander McCall Smith

3. “Good manners will open doors that the best education cannot.” ⁠— Clarence Thomas

4. “Saying thank you is more than good manners; it is good spirituality.” — Alfred Painter

5. “Friends and good manners will carry you where money won’t go.” ⁠— Margaret Walker

6. “A dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners.” — Robert A. Heinlein

7. “Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.” — Benjamin Franklin

8. “Clothes and manners do not make the man; but when he is made, they greatly improve his appearance.” — Arthur Ashe

9. “I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” — G.K. Chesterton

10. “Make it a habit to tell people thank you. To express your appreciation, sincerely and without the expectation of anything in return.” — Ralph Marston

Classic Manners Quotes

Making an effort to use good manners is always important, no matter the place or occasion!

11. “May I? Thank you!” — Shel Silverstein

12. “I believe that treating other people well is a lost art.” — Tim Gunn

13. “Good manners are ageless, priceless, and classless.” — Diana Mather

14. “Fine manners need the support of fine manners in others.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

15. “Honor has to say “please” and “thank you.” Manners are really important.” — Jessica Alba

16. “A man’s manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

17. “God gave you a gift of 84,600 seconds today. Have you used one of them to say thank you?” — William Arthur Ward

18. “I seek constantly to improve my manners and graces, for they are the sugar to which all are attracted.” — Og Mandino

19. “Being considerate of others will take your children further in life than any college degree.” — Marian Wright Edelman

20. “Nothing is so great an example of bad manners as flattery. If you flatter all the company, you please none; If you flatter only one or two, you offend the rest.” — Jonathan Swift

Table Manners Quotes

Check out some quotes on table manners.

21. “Use your fork.” — T.J. Klune

22. “The world was my oyster, but I used the wrong fork.” — Oscar Wilde

23. “Worse than talking with a mouthful is gossiping with a mouthful!” — Anthony Liccione

24. “Good manners are just a way of showing other people that we have respect for them.” — Bill Kelly

25. “On the Continent, people have good food; in England, people have good table manners.” — George Mikes

26. “Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.” — Emily Post

27. “The children nodded in agreement and rose from the table. Leaving their dirty breakfast dishes behind, which is not a good thing to do in general but perfectly acceptable in the face of an emergency.” — Lemony Snicket

28. “Sitting down for dinner not only helps you learn but also teaches you how to listen – which I feel is the most important skill to have. I remember as a kid going around the table listening to everyone’s day.” — Michael Symon

29. “Consideration is the basis of etiquette, and it starts at home. If you can’t show consideration to your spouse, child, or family member, any consideration you show outside is shallow and a farce.” — Chinha Raheja

30. “The dinner table is the center for the teaching and practicing not just of table manners but of conversation, consideration, tolerance, family feeling, and just about all the other accomplishments of polite society except the minuet.” — Judith Martin

Manners Quotes on Politeness

Politeness is of utmost importance as it shows respect and civility in society.

31. “Never start a sentence with the words ‘No offense.’” — Gretchen Rubin

32. “Politeness is an inexpensive way of making friends.” — William Feather

33. “Politeness [is] a sign of dignity, not subservience.” — Theodore Roosevelt

34. “When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.” — Winston Churchill

35. “Politeness does not interfere with facts; politeness is just another fact.” — Gertrude Stein

36. “Kindness and politeness are not overrated at all. They’re underused.” — Tommy Lee Jones

37. “It is a wise thing to be polite; consequently, it is a stupid thing to be rude.” — Arthur Schopenhauer

38. “True politeness consists in being easy one’s self, and in making everyone about one as easy as one can.” — Alexander Pope

39. “Be polite; write diplomatically; even in a declaration of war, one observes the rules of politeness.” — Otto von Bismarck

40. “Being polite is not meant to be a graceful way of being dishonest. Politeness is a way in which we honor and respect others.” — Mark Nichols

Bad Manners Quotes

Bad manners can leave you with no friends, or worse.

41. “There is no nobility with bad manners.” — Ali ibn Abi Talib

42. “I don’t ever knock anybody; that’s bad manners.” — Letitia Baldrige

43. “Friends and good manners will carry you where money won’t go.” — Margaret Walker

44. “The test of good manners is to be able to put up pleasantly with bad ones.” — Wendell Willkie

45. “Good manners open the closed doors; bad manners close the open doors!” — Mehmet Murat Ildan

46. “I don’t accept bad manners, so all my grandchildren are very well-behaved, just like my kids.” — Maye Musk

47. “A bad manner spoils everything, even reason and justice; a good one supplies everything.” — Baltasar Gracian

48. “Good manners sometimes means simply putting up with other people’s bad manners.” — H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

49. “The great secret…is not having bad manners or good manners…but having the same manner for all human souls.” — George Bernard Shaw

50. “Evil communication corrupts good manners. I hope to live to hear that good communication corrects bad manners.” — Benjamin Banneker

What Are the Most Important Manners?

There is no hard and fast rule on what manners are the most important, but in general, most people can agree that certain manners are of the most importance.

Five manners that everyone should learn are: