Propriety Quotes

You are mistaken, Mr. Darcy, if you suppose that the mode of your declaration affected me in any other way, than as it spared the concern which I might have felt in refusing you, had you behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner. (Elizabeth Bennett)

~ Jane Austen

But my way of writing is rather to think aloud, and follow my own humours, than much to consider who is listening to me; and, if I stop to consider what is proper to be said to this or that person, I shall soon come to doubt whether any part at all is proper.

~ Thomas De Quincey

Repression is a seamless garment; a society which is authoritarian in its social and sexual codes, which crushes its women beneath the intolerable burdens of honour and propriety, breeds repressions of other kinds as well.

~ Salman Rushdie

There are certain phrases potent to make my blood boil -- improper influence! What old woman's cackle is that?Are you a young lady?I am a thousand times better: I am an honest woman, and as such I will be treated.

~ Charlotte Brontë

Losing maturity in one’s fiction for the sake of marvels and monsters can also mean losing propriety, and that’s not always a bad thing.

~ Hal Duncan

...the pleasantness of an employment does not always evince its propriety.

~ Jane Austen

Patience and propriety. It was the only graceful thing to do.

~ Patrick Rothfuss

Success is not worth rejoicing over, failure is not worth grieving over.

~ Luo Guanzhong

How could you die and not be old enough to hear about premarital sex? How could you die and still not be allowed to fall in love or be honest? Surely not everything had to wait for university and a good job. Passion and truth had to trump even those things.

~ Zen Cho