Delicacy is the parent of decency. [ Mme. Deluzy ]
Decency and decorum are not pride. [ Proverb ]
Decency renders all things tolerable. [ De Gerando ]
The laws of decency enforce themselves. [ Mme. Louise Colet ]
Men generally look more upon decency than virtue. [ Proverb ]
No law reaches it, but all rightminded people observe it. [ Chamfort ]
Caprice in women often infringes upon the rules of decency. [ Bruyere ]
A woman without a degree of decency and delicacy is unsexed. [ C. M. Yonge ]
Decency is not defined by statute, but the laws of instinct are stronger. [ Duclos ]
Immodest words admit of no defence, For want of decency is want of sense. [ Earl of Roscommon ]
Too great a display of delicacy can and does sometimes infringe upon decency. [ Balzac ]
Decency is the least of all laws, yet the law which is most strictly observed. [ Rochefoucauld ]
My cares and my inquiries are for decency and truth, and in this I am wholly occupied. [ Horace ]
Two things should always be aimed at in our apparel - neatness and decency; but we should avoid an effeminate spruceness, as much as a fantastic disorder. [ J. Beaumont ]
How sweet it would be to live in society if the countenance always reflected the disposition, if decency were virtue, and if our maxims were our rules of action. [ J. J. Rousseau ]
I think someone should have had the decency to tell me the luncheon was free. To make someone run out with potato salad in his hand, pretending he's throwing up, is not what I call hospitality. [ Jack Handey, Deep Thoughts ]
What does competency in the long run mean? It means to all reasonable beings, cleanliness of person, decency of dress, courtesy of manners, opportunities for education, the delights of leisure, and the bliss of giving. [ Whipple ]
If once a woman breaks through the barriers of decency, her case is desperate; and if she goes greater lengths than the men, and leaves the pale of propriety farther behind her, it is because she is aware that all return is prohibited, and by none so strongly as by her own sex. [ Colton ]
Nowadays enthusiasm is accounted folly; truth, cynicism; dissimulation, self-control; stiffness of manners, dignity; deception, cleverness; hypocrisy, decency; selfishness, economy; freedom of thought, effrontery; and superstition, the prop of human morals. What progress in language!
It is the saying of an old divine, Two things in ray apparel I will chiefly aim at - commodiousness and decency; more than these is not commendable, yet I hate an effeminate spruceness as much as a fantastic disorder. A neglected comeliness is the best ornament.
It is said of the celebrated Mr. Whitfield that he always was very clean and neat, and often said pleasantly that a minister of the gospel ought to be without a spot.
[ J. Beaumont ]