The whole essence of true gentle-breeding (one does not like to say gentility) lies in the wish and the art to be agreeable. Good-breeding is surface-Christianity.

Call me uxorious, spoony, passion's plaything, but let a woman signify her whim by so much as a nod and, by George, I'll climb the highest mountain, swim the deepest ocean to gratify it.

There is no society or conversation to be kept up in the world without good-nature, or something which must bear its appearance and supply its place. For this reason mankind have been forced to invent a kind of artificial humanity, which is what we express by the word Good-Breeding.

It is good breeding alone that can prepossess people in your favor at first sight, more time being necessary to discover greater talents.

The scholar without good breeding is a pedant; the philosopher, a cynic.

Good breeding, a union of kindness and independence.

The test of a man or woman's breeding is how they behave in a quarrel.

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