Top 100 Politely Quotes
#1. Miss Volker," I said about as politely as I knew how, "do you think you will outlast the rest of these original people?" "I have to," she said. "I made a promise to Eleanor Roosevelt to see them to their graves, and I can't drop dead on the job - so let's get going.
Jack Gantos
#2. He and the girl had almost nothing to say to each other. One thing he did say was, 'I ain't got any tattoo on my back.'
'What you got on it?' the girl said.
'My shirt,' Parker said. 'Haw.'
'Haw, haw,' the girl said politely.
Flannery O'Connor
#3. pardon!' said the Mouse, frowning, but very politely: 'Did you speak?' 'Not I!' said the Lory
Lewis Carroll
#4. Are we going to kick arse and take names, Miss Kane?" "I was thinking we'd maybe just ask them some questions. Politely.
Alexis Hall
#5. Malaria-hosting mosquitoes will not wait politely during their most active evening feeding hours for people to go to bed under mosquito nets.
T.K. Naliaka
#6. Please stop, I said politely - he was that big. One should always mind one's manners around big things.
Lish McBride
#7. Even before I recognized him, I smiled politely. Well trained, I would have smiled so at my executioner.
Megan Whalen Turner
#8. One day, I spent a long time with Isaac drawing a tea party for dinosaurs. On a huge piece of brown packaging paper we drew allosaurs and tyrannosaurs sitting on little chairs, with hind legs politely crossed
Brooks Haxton
#9. Christopher discovered that you dealt with obnoxious masters and most older boys the way you dealt with governesses: you quite politely told them the truth in the way they wanted to hear it, so that they thought they had won and left you in peace.
Diana Wynne Jones
#10. When I act politely, I build a reserve of goodwill in others. That reserve allows those people to cut me some slack when I do something annoying.
John Elder Robison
#11. We are divorced, North from South, because we have hated each other so. If we could only separate politely, and not have a horrid fight for divorce.
Mary Boykin Chesnut
#12. I know this messenger, guard," said Mr. Lorry, getting down into the road - assisted from behind more swiftly than politely by the other two passengers, who immediately scrambled into the coach, shut the door, and pulled up the window. "He may come close; there's nothing wrong.
Charles Dickens
#13. No, Mr. Swift's mind doesn't work that way, any more than my father's does. They're men of business. Predators. If Mr. Swift wanted me, he wouldn't stop to ask for my permission any more than a lion would stop and politely ask an antelope if he would mind being eaten for lunch.
Lisa Kleypas
#14. To a gentleman, a gentleman-someone who dies without ever pronouncing the word-is a man who climbs Everest, never mentions it to a soul, and listens politely to Pochet's account of how in 1937 in spite of his sciatica, he conquered the Puy de Dome.
Pierre Daninos
#15. , and he told a story once after intercourse, to the person who had just politely hoisted him while he hyperventilated in their space until his error had been registered as a small dollop of fluid he extruded from his mistake zone, ...
Ben Marcus
#16. I'm afraid it's not much use to you, Mr. Rumblebuffin.'
Not at all. Not at all.' said the giant politely. 'Never met a nicer hankerchee.
C.S. Lewis
#17. The life I chose when I promised my six-year-old self never to forget being a child, never to grow frightened and dishonest like the grownups I saw, nodding politely to each other without affection, and decided to put my true self in a time capsule for later use.
Aurora Levins Morales
#18. But just as everything was going along politely, quietly and wonderfully - in poured Citizen Danton and his crew.
Hilary Mantel
#19. It was while Princess Margaret was attending a high-society party in New York that the hostess asked her politely how the Queen was keeping. "Which one?" she is reported to have replied with her typically razor-sharp wit. "My sister, my mother or my husband?
Princess Margaret
#20. So you're not going to die, are you?" she [Astor] asked politely.
"Not yet," I said. "Not until after you do your homework."
She nodded, glanced toward the kitchen, and said, "I hate math." Then she wandered away down the hall, presumably to hate math at closer range.
Jeff Lindsay
#21. No matter how politely one says it, we owe our existence to the farts of blue-green algae.
Diane Ackerman
#22. If you are not sure or you don't know something, politely ask. Asking is not a sign of being daft, but of confidence.
Archibald Marwizi
#23. I have been asked, politely and not so politely, why I am myself. This is an accounting any woman will be called on to give if she asserts her will.
Andrea Dworkin
#24. Alek coughed politely, "If I promise to avoid funny business, could you perhaps remove this knife from my throat?
Scott Westerfeld
#25. Indeed," Jamie said politely. "I believe that was the Crown's notion in executing my grandsire on Tower Hill after the Rising. Verra effective, too; all my relations have been quite well behaved since.
Diana Gabaldon
#26. Pemphredo had been about to crawl off, but at that she came back and settled down, brushing off her filthy shorts. Deino crossed her legs. Enyo stopped picking at her fingernails with a knife and put it politely away. I kind of felt like I should be serving tea.
Karen Chance
#27. With any tween, you have issues, from what they are going to wear to school, to how do you get them to speak politely, to how regularly they lose their contact lenses.
Marcia Gay Harden
#28. You lose nothing by being polite. The answer is 'No', but please say it politely and give the reasons ... Explain to me why 'No'. Don't change 'No' to 'Yes'. Don't be a fool. If there was a good reason why it is 'No', it must remain 'No', but the man must be told politely.
Mr. Lee
#29. The Inspector stood up. Worried. Fonso Spalato fell silent.
'What's wrong?' he said, ready to jump out of his chair and start running.
'Do you mind if I whinny again?' the inspector politely asked
Andrea Camilleri
#30. Haven . . . do you really think I'd stand aside politely while another man comes sniffing around my woman? If I let that happen, I wouldn't be a man. And I sure as hell wouldn't be a Texan.
Lisa Kleypas
#31. Did you know that smiling politely burns up the same amount of calories as speaking your mind.
Colson Whitehead
#32. We do not consider the kingdom damned," Lord August said politely. "We prefer not to use that word."
"What would you call it, Lord August?" Finnikin asked. "A little magic? A slight curse? A bit of bad luck?
Melina Marchetta
#33. I perceived that I was hungry, and prepared to clamber out of the hammock which, very politely anticipating my intention, twisted round and deposited me upon the floor.
H.G.Wells
#34. Most thoughtful,"...[he said] politely. This cheerfulness was ambiguous, Had she determined to ignore ...[the] coup entirely--an established tactic, most irritating to the innovator but hard to sustain over long periods of time--or had she already evolved her counter-strategy?
Tom Holt
#35. The art of conversation consist as much in listening politely, as in talking agreeably.
Hayley Atwell
#36. My father-in-law tripped on a crack in the pavement and spent the rest of the week politely pretending he had not dislocated his shoulder.
Tina Fey
#37. Prophets are so dangerous because they cry in season and out of season, politely and impolitely, loud and long.
Joan D. Chittister
#38. Pray don't hold back," Robert said politely. "You can tell me what you really think of my valet." Stewart broke in to a reluctant grin."Sorry fer bein' so forward, sir, but that valet o' yers is nothin' but a Frenchified piece o' lace.
Karen Hawkins
#39. I hated cranberry sauce, but for some reason my mom persisted in her lifelong belief that it was my very favorite food, even though every single Thanksgiving I politely declined to include it on my plate.
John Green
#40. For a time Emerson politely endeavored to conceal his boredom - like most men, he is profoundly disinterested in all children except his own - ...
Elizabeth Peters
#42. Excuse me," she said politely. "But you can't have him. Not yet. He's going to come back with me.
Tamora Pierce
#43. People dream. They talk about escaping from it all. Their friends and family diligently listen and politely ignore it when the ruminations fade into oblivion. So quite a few eyebrows went up when I made this trip a reality.
Kristine K. Stevens
#44. I was raised in Duluth, Minnesota, where you never say that you're cold, or that you're suffering, and you listen politely to people, even if you disagree with them completely. Then you say passive-aggressive things later.
Maria Bamford
#45. I've found that falling asleep is the best way to politely excuse yourself from an unwanted interaction.
Babe Walker
#46. It appears, Mister Lipwig, that you do not understand the nature of our relationship. I ask, very politely, for you to achieve something, bearing in mind that there are other ways I could ask, and it is your job to get things done.
Terry Pratchett
#47. I believe in life you need to always ask for everything politely and nicely, and then if they say no you do what you wanted to do anyway
Paloma Faith
#48. I want to throw up because we're supposed to quietly and politely make house in this killing machine called America and pay taxes to support our own slow murder and I'm amazed we're not running amok in the streets, and that we can still be capable of gestures of loving after lifetimes of all this.
David Wojnarowicz
#49. There were three of them there, then, and Amabella was introducing Bod and he was shaking hands and saying, "Charmed, I'm sure," because he could greet people politely over nine hundred years of changing manners.
Neil Gaiman
#50. He has always been politely indifferent. But what's the Chinese word that means indifferent because you can't see any differences?
Amy Tan
#51. Dirac politely refused Robert's [Robert Oppenheimer] two proffered books: reading books, the Cambridge theoretician announced gravely, "interfered with thought."
Luis Walter Alvarez
#52. No matter where they are or who they're with, dogs are incapable of being anything but themselves. Show me a dog that puts on airs or laughs politely at an unfunny joke and I'll show you a human in a dog costume, possibly one owned and licensed by the Walt Disney Company.
Meghan Daum
#53. It's politely assumed that democracy is a means of containing and restraining violence. But violence comes not from genes but from ideas.
Edward Bond
#54. I'm always a big fan of if you approach somebody politely about something and you're not a nudge - you're just pretty honest and simple, my kind of philosophy is that I'm not afraid of 'no,' and that's way different than 'I won't take no for an answer.'
Carol Leifer
#55. I am sorry to disturb you,' said James politely, 'but these people wished to shoot us.
Evelyn Waugh
#56. I want that Sinatra type of fame. It's not the 'Whoever's the hot pop star at the moment' fame. It's the 'Walk into a room and everybody just kind of politely nods their heads' fame. Sinatra fame.
Jerrod Carmichael
#57. He leaned forward and opened his door, politely standing aside to let me by before following me in. There are some advantages to dating a guy from another era, I thought. Though I am a big believer in gender equality, chivalry scores high in my book.
Amy Plum
#58. It is not a bad thing that children should occasionally, and politely, put parents in their place.
Sidonie Gabrielle Colette
#59. I know the world is a drawing-room, from which we must retire politely and honestly; that is, with a bow, and our debts of honor paid.
Alexandre Dumas
#60. Kamaswami entered, a swiftly, smoothly moving man with very gray hair, with very intelligent, cautious eyes, with a greedy mouth. Politely, the host and the guest greeted one another.
Hermann Hesse
#61. So long as Sam wanted to take it up the ass with another dick in his mouth instead of politely pounding a pussy, he couldn't belong. Not here. Not ever. Any wedding Sam planned in this environment wouldn't just be an also-ran. It would be nothing short of a total disaster.
Heidi Cullinan
#62. The snow began to fall again, drifting against the windows, politely begging entrance and then falling with
disappointment to the ground
Jamie McGuire
#63. I disapproved of him from beginning to end. First he nodded politely, and then his face broke into that radiant and understanding smile as if we'd been in ecstatic cahoots on that fact all along.
F Scott Fitzgerald
#64. I could have run after him. I could have asked politely for some clarification. But I didn't I knew what I preferred, and that was - I didn't want to know. Rather, I wanted to believe.
Lloyd Jones
#65. Mmm...you smell of lavender." She didn't think it wise to tell the man what he smelled like so she politely nodded.
Victoria Roberts
#66. Acting politely in front of someone black and/or gay and then making horrible claims about their intelligence or worth as human beings after they leave the room is not kindness - it's hypocrisy.
Mallory Ortberg
#67. Denial is commonly found among persons with dissociative disorders. My favorite quotation from such a client is, "We are not multiple, we made it all up." I have heard this from several different clients. When I hear it, I politely inquire, "And who is we?
Alison Miller
#68. Sabeth listened when I told her about my experiences, but as one listens to an old man; without interrupting, politely, without believing, without getting excited.
Max Frisch
#69. I would like a cappuccino," says Linus politely. "Thank you."
"Your name?"
"I'll spell it for you," he says. "Z-W-P-A-E-N
"
"What?" She stares at him, Sharpie in hand.
"Wait, I haven't finished. Double F-hyphen-T-J-U-S. It's an unusual name, Linus adds gravely. "It's Dutch.
Sophie Kinsella
#70. There was a door, but it was terribly bashful, so Auri politely pretended not to see it.
Patrick Rothfuss
#71. Spend the years of learning squandering
Courage for the years of wandering
Through a world politely turning
From the loutishness of learning.
Samuel Beckett
#72. We will hang you, never fear, Most politely, most politely.
William Gilbert
#73. Girls like me smiled politely and always did the right thing. Girls like me definitely didn't sneak away at night to do things that would crush their fathers. And if they did, girls like me knew how to keep it to themselves.
Robin Talley
#74. Even on the first day we invaded Plover's house we sensed the conundrum that Americans are faced with in England: they're too frightened of English people to behave rudely to them, and too ignorant to know how to behave politely.
Lev Grossman
#75. She has always seemed to me the epitome of womankind: coldly suspicious, politely ill-tempered, and narrowly selfish.
John Edward Williams
#76. It amazes me that those who behave rudely always expect to be treated politely.
Roger Simon
#77. It's just like with people. You're going to get along better working with them - human or equine - if you ask politely rather than demand that they do things.
Viggo Mortensen
#78. When I get free, I believe I'll show you your spine. I'll hand it to you so casually, politely even, as if expecting you to remark upon it.
Kresley Cole
#79. I hate rude behavior in a man,' he explained in his quiet, unassuming drawl. 'I won't tolerate it.' He politely tipped his hat, and rode away.
Larry McMurtry
#80. We would like to hear the story of Fuck," says Abraham Lincoln politely.
Margaret Atwood
#81. I always ask at once, 'Do you drink?' and if she says 'No,' I bow politely and say I am sorry but I fear she will not suit. All good cooks drink.
James Whistler
#82. Chemicals were easier to procure than friends, and when I wanted to play with them they never said they had to stay home to wash their hair or, less politely, that they didn't associate with weirdos.
Leonard Mlodinow
#83. You may compliment my cock, you may beg, and you may politely ask for more. I don't want to hear anything else.
Krista Ritchie
#84. She is a 13-year-old girl who shares Amanda's name, and politely explained that she could not give up the website. Why? Because the younger Amanda plans to be president of the United States, and she's going to need the website for her campaign.
Eva Longoria
#85. Alice felt dreadfully puzzled. The Hatter's remark seemed to have no sort of meaning in it, and yet it was certainly English. 'I don't quite understand you,' she said, as politely as she could.
Lewis Carroll
#86. People will not be bored. They may listen politely at a dinner table to boasts and personalities, life history, etc. But in print they choose their own companions, their own subjects. They was to be amused or benefitted
Claude C. Hopkins
#87. Say something idiotic and nobody but a dog politely wags his tail.
Virginia Graham
#88. When I act tough they listen politely till the spasm passes. They know.
Frank McCourt
#89. He played with enormous energy and great fighting spirit. Offering him a draw was a waste of time. He would decline it politely, but firmly. "No, thank you," he would say and the fight would go on and on and on.
Lubomir Kavalek
#90. I've learned, I think, to be able to distinguish between the necessary and the unnecessary as far as my limited outside time is concerned. Saying 'no' politely is a necessity if one wants to lead any kind of stable life.
Richard Chamberlain
#91. Parantham finally realized that selecting a star on the map enabled a sub-menu with the unassuming option "Go to star". Choosing this did not change the map's viewpoint or magnification; rather, it caused the map to inquire politely, "Are you sure you wish to travel to this star?
Greg Egan
#92. Don't try to push [fear] away,' he said. 'If you fight it, you make it stronger. You gotta great it politely, like an unwanted cousin. You can't make it leave you alone, but you can do what you have to do, in spite of it.
Lian Tanner
#93. Mr. Beresford put down the Daily Mail, which he was reading, and applauded with somewhat unnecessary vigour. He was politely requested by his colleague not to be an ass.
Agatha Christie
#94. Perhaps," you will add, grinning, "those who have never been slapped will also not understand" - thereby politely hinting that I, too, may have experienced a slap in my life, and am therefore speaking as a connoisseur.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
#95. Some madness doesn't act mad to begin with, sometimes it will knock politely at the door, and when you let it in, it'll simply sit in the corner without a fuss - and grow.
Nathan Filer
#96. Our questions, which began politely, were politely ignored.
John Hart
#97. See, some people politely encourage their tone-deaf friends to sing. Some people even convince them to go on live television and audition for national competitions. But me? I am not that friend.
Sarah Ockler
#98. It would be nice if everybody who had something interesting to say about my work could say it politely and civilly, but it doesn't work that way ... Sometimes people are just really nasty.
Paul Bloom
#99. I once tried to give him a friendly little "drugs chat". He politely corrected me on every single fact, then said he'd noticed I drank above the recommended guidelines of Red Bull and did I think I might have an addiction? That was the last time I tried to act like the older sister.
Sophie Kinsella
#100. It's, like, bigots want to embrace me, and I politely take their arms from around my neck. I don't share their views - never have.
Isaiah Washington
