Genteel Quotes

Unless criticism refuses to take itself quite so seriously or at least to permit its readers not to, it will inevitably continue to reflect the finicky canons of the genteel tradition and the depressing pieties of the Culture Religion of Modernism. - Leslie Fiedler

There were times he could get very pointed with people he thought were messing with landmarks, but for the most part I thought he was genteel, gracious, very polite. I saw him a lot, and I thought he was nice to everybody. He never rubbed his wealth in anybody's nose or acted above anybody. - Tim Frank

There are dozens of young poets and fictioneers most of them a little insane in the tradition of James Joyce, who, however insane they may be, have refused to be genteel and traditional and dull. - Sinclair Lewis

Sir, money, money, the most charming of all things; money, which will say more in one moment than the most elegant lover can in years. Perhaps you will say a man is not young; I answer he is rich. He is not genteel, handsome, witty, brave, good-humored, but he is rich, rich, rich, rich, rich that one word contradicts everything you can say against him. - Henry Fielding

Science is a contact sport. People think about it being genteel, but it's a tough game. - Dr. Jeffrey Drazen

No dancing bear was so genteel, / Or half so dagaga. - William Cowper

It's the genteel anti-Semitism of the time. Jews were politely shut out of the country clubs and the higher echelons of WASP culture. - Dan Wackerman

I'm not so interested in the more modern period. It's a little too English baroque, too genteel and sweet for me. I'm much more attracted to the old bagpipe tradition, going back hundreds of years. The vast majority of my material I get from pipers. They developed this sound that evokes the wide-open, lonely landscape of the Scottish highlands. - Jamie Laval

I am a journalist in the field of etiquette. I try to find out what the most genteel people regularly do, what traditions they have discarded, what compromises they have made. - Amy Vanderbilt