Etiquette requires the presumption of good until the contrary is proved.
Emily PostRead
Courtesy demands that you, when you are a guest, shall show neither annoyance nor disappointment--no matter what happens.
Interpretation
As a guest, you should remain polite and composed regardless of your feelings about the situation.
This quote by Emily Post emphasizes the importance of etiquette in social situations, particularly when you are a guest. It suggests that good manners require you to hide any negative emotions like annoyance or disappointment, thereby maintaining a pleasant atmosphere for both yourself and your host. By adhering to this guideline, you show respect and understanding, fostering positive relationships and social harmony.
In practice
During a formal dinner party, when the food is not to your taste, remember to keep a smile and be gracious.
Etiquette requires the presumption of good until the contrary is proved.
If you are hurt, whether in mind or body, don't nurse your bruises. Get up, and light-heartedly, courageously, good-temperedly, get ready for the next encounter.
To make a pleasant and friendly impression is not alone good manners, but equally good business.
An overdose of praise is like 10 lumps of sugar in coffee; only a very few people can swallow it.
Any child can be taught to be beautifully behaved with no effort greater than quiet patience and perseverance, whereas to break bad habits once they are acquired is a Herculean task.
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.
Etiquette requires us to admire the human race.
Manners easily and rapidly mature into morals.
For you deal here above all with human life, and human life is sacred; no one may dare make an attempt upon it. Respect for life, even with regard to the great problem of the birth rate, must find here in your Assembly its highest affirmation and its most rational defense. Your task is to ensure that there is enough bread on the tables of mankind, and not to encourage an artificial control of births, which would be irrational, in order to diminish the number of guests at the banquet of life.
For, after all, put it as we may to ourselves, we are all of us from birth to death guests at a table which we did not spread. The sun, the earth, love, friends, our very breath are parts of the banquet.... Shall we think of the day as a chance to come nearer to our Host, and to find out something of Him who has fed us so long?
It is a mistake that there is no bath that will cure people's manners, but drowning would help.
For a host, above all, must be kind to his guests.
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