26 quotes about Tact and Tactfulness

Tact is the art of making guests feel at home when that's really where you wish they were.

Bergman, George E.

It is tact that is golden, not silence.

Butler, Samuel

Silence is not always tact, but it is tact that is golden, not silence.

Butler, Samuel

One shouldn't talk of halters in the hanged man's house.

Cervantes, Miguel De

'Tis ill talking of halters in the house of a man that was hanged.

Cervantes, Miguel De

The art of the parenthesis is one of the greatest secrets of eloquence in Society.

Chamfort, Sebastien-Roch Nicolas De

Tact is knowing how far to go too far.

Cocteau, Jean

Tact in audacity consists in knowing how far we may go too far.

Cocteau, Jean

Euphemisms are not, as many young people think, useless verbiage for that which can and should be said bluntly; they are like secret agents on a delicate mission, they must airily pass by a stinking mess with barely so much as a nod of the head, make their point of constructive criticism and continue on in calm forbearance. Euphemisms are unpleasant truths wearing diplomatic cologne.

Crisp, Quentin

Perseverance and tact are the two great qualities most valuable for all those who would climb, but especially for those who have to step out of the crowd.

Disraeli, Benjamin

Without tact you can learn nothing. Tact teaches you when to be silent. Inquirers who are always questioning never learn anything.

Disraeli, Benjamin

A spoonful of honey will catch more flies than a gallon of vinegar.

Franklin, Benjamin

Tact is to lie about others as you would have them lie about you.

Herford, Oliver

The secret of man's success resides in his insight into the mood's of people, and his tact in dealing with them.

Holland, Josiah Gilbert

Experience was to be taken as showing that one might get a five-pound note as one got a light for a cigarette; but one had to check the friendly impulse to ask for it in the same way.

James, Henry

Tact is after all a kind of mind reading.

Jewett, Sarah Orne

Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.

Lincoln, Abraham

Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy.

Newton, Howard W.

Forbear to mention what thou canst not praise.

Prior, Matthew

So long as the laws remain such as they are today, employ some discretion: loud opinion forces us to do so; but in privacy and silence let us compensate ourselves for that cruel chastity we are obliged to display in public.

Sade, Marquis De

'Tis not seasonable to call a man traitor, that has an army at his heels.

Selden, John

Give thy thoughts no tongue, nor any unproportioned thought his act. Be thou familiar but by no means vulgar.

Shakespeare, William

Tact is one of the first mental virtues, the absence of it is fatal to the best talent.

Simms, William Gilmore

Tact is ability to see others as they wish to be seen.

Unknown, Source

Tact is the intelligence of the heart.

Unknown, Source

To have the reputation of possessing the most perfect social tact, talk to every woman as if you loved her, and to every man as if he bored you.

Wilde, Oscar