Prepare yourself for the world as athletes used to do for their exercises; oil your mind and your manners to give them the necessary suppleness and flexibility; strength alone will not do.
God (al-Haqq) is your mirror that is the mirror in which you contemplate your self (nafs anima) and you you are His mirror that is the mirror in which He contemplates His divine Names…. Here we have a reciprocal relationship as between two mirrors facing one another and reflecting the same image back and forth.
On a cold winter?s day a group of porcupines huddled together to stay warm and keep from freezing. But soon they felt one another?s quills and moved apart. When the need for warmth brought them closer together again their quills again forced them apart. They were driven back and forth at the mercy of their discomforts until they found the distance from one another that provided both a maximum of warmth and a minimum of pain. In human beings the emptiness and monotony of the isolated self produces a need for society. This brings people together but their many offensive qualities and intolerable faults drive them apart again. The optimum distance that they finally find that permits them to coexist is embodied in politeness and good manners. Because of this distance between us we can only partially satisfy our need for warmth but at the same time we are spared the stab of one another?s quills.
To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid you must also be well-mannered.
The hardest job kids face today is learning good manners without seeing any.
You cant be truly rude until you understand good manners.
Prepare yourself for the world as athletes used to do for their exercises; oil your mind and your manners to give them the necessary suppleness and flexibility; strength alone will not do.
A mans own manner and character is what most becomes him.
Good manners are made up of petty sacrifices.
A mans manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait.
You lose your manners when you are poor.
God (al-Haqq) is your mirror that is the mirror in which you contemplate your self (nafs anima) and you you are His mirror that is the mirror in which He contemplates His divine Names…. Here we have a reciprocal relationship as between two mirrors facing one another and reflecting the same image back and forth.
Fine manners need the support of fine manners in others.
Tact is after all a kind of mind reading.
The habit of being uniformly considerate toward others will bring increased happiness to you.
No persons are more frequently wrong than those who will not admit they are wrong.
Of manners gentle of affections mild In wit a man simplicity a child.
On a cold winter?s day a group of porcupines huddled together to stay warm and keep from freezing. But soon they felt one another?s quills and moved apart. When the need for warmth brought them closer together again their quills again forced them apart. They were driven back and forth at the mercy of their discomforts until they found the distance from one another that provided both a maximum of warmth and a minimum of pain. In human beings the emptiness and monotony of the isolated self produces a need for society. This brings people together but their many offensive qualities and intolerable faults drive them apart again. The optimum distance that they finally find that permits them to coexist is embodied in politeness and good manners. Because of this distance between us we can only partially satisfy our need for warmth but at the same time we are spared the stab of one another?s quills.
Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners.
The most difficult thing in the world is to know how to do a thing and to watch somebody else doing it wrong without comment.
The test of good manners is to be able to put up pleasantly with bad ones.