Manners
Life expresses. Nature tells every secret once; but in man she tells it all the time, by form, attitude, gesture, mien, face, and parts of the face, and by the whole action of the machine. The visible carriage or action of the individual, as resulting from his organization and his will combined, we call manners. What are they but thought entering the hands and feet, controlling the movements of the body, the speech and behavior.
There is always a best way of doing everything, if it be to boil an egg. Manners are the happy ways of doing things; each, once a stroke of genius or love,—now repeated and hardened into usage. They form at last a rich varnish, with which the routine of life is washed, and its details adorned. If they are superficial, so are the dewdrops which give such a depth to the morning meadows.
The power of manners is incessant,—an element as unconcealable as fire. The nobility cannot in any country be disguised, and no more in a republic or a democracy than in a kingdom. No man can resist their influence. There are certain manners which are learned in good society, or better still, are the spontaneous expression of noble lives and which will open every door to the one possessing them, though without beauty, or wealth or genius. Give a boy address and accomplishments, and you give him the mastery of palaces and fortunes where he goes. He has not the trouble of earning or owning them; they solicit him to enter and possess.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson.
A true gentleman is the flower of a good home.
Alternate Reading: John 13:1-20.