Mark Twain Quotes

But the people are ungrammatical, untidy, and their sins gaunt and ill-bred.

A man's manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait.

No one is more insufferable than he who lacks basic courtesy.

I lapsed into rude.

When you can't do anything else to a boy, you can make him wash his face.

I was raised right — I talk about people behind their backs. It's called manners.

The etiquette question that troubles so many fastidious people New Year's Day is: How am I ever going to face those people again?

Whoever one is, and wherever one is, one is always in the wrong if one is rude.

That bad manners are so prevalent in the world is the fault of good manners.

There is no excuse for bad manners, except fast reflexes.

Being polite is not only the right way to respond to people but also the easiest. Life is so filled with unavoidable conflict that I see no reason to promote more confrontations.

In his heart, he knew that there was no reason to be impolite to someone, even if they did work for you. There was such a thing as manners after all.

The purpose of discipline is not to punish, but to correct.

Children are capable of such open rudeness.

Amazing what the application of a knitting needle could do for one's manners.

There are people who balk at small civilities on account of their manifest insincerity. ... It is better and more logical to accept all the polite phraseology which facilitates intercourse, and contributes to the sweetness of life. If we discarded the formal falsehoods which are the currency of conversation, we should not be one step nearer the vital things of truth.

I've got confidence that most people in America still have a decent sense of manners, propriety, morality.

Many young persons believe themselves natural when they are only impolite and coarse.

People behave badly and people are in prison and people are on death row, and there are no excuses for everybody's behavior, but most people are coming from abuse.

Certain types of loudmouthism should be a capital offense among decent people.

We make a big mistake when we conclude that the law is the answer to bad behavior. In fact, the law alone stirs up more of such behavior. People get worse, not better, when you lay down the law. To be sure, the Spirit does use both God's law and God's gospel in our sanctification. But the law and the gospel do very different things.

I'm for capital punishment. You've got to execute people. How else are they going to learn?

Off with you" is a phrase used by people who lack the curtesy to say something more polite, such as, "if there's nothing else you require I must be going" or "I'm sorry but I'm going to have to ask you to leave, please" or even "excuse me but I believe you have mistaken my home for your own and my valuable belongings for yours and I must ask you to return the items in question to me and leave my home after untying me from this chair, as I'm unable to do it myself, if it's not too much trouble.

Politeness does not always inspire goodness, equity, complaisance, and gratitude; it gives at least the appearance of these qualities, and makes man appear outwardly, as he should be within.

It seems to me that the spirit of politeness is a certain attention in causing that, by our words and by our manners, others may be content with us and with themselves.