quotations about behavior
What a man does, not what he feels, thinks, or believes, is the universal yardstick of behavior.
BENJAMIN C. LEEMING
Imagination
However much we feel the need to justify our inexplicable behavior, the fact remains that once we have decided to live, once we have decided to enjoy life, none of these disturbing, distressing, crippling factors is of the least importance.
HENRY MILLER
Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch
Put himself upon his good behavior.
LORD BYRON
Don Juan
Unweighed behavior.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
The Merry Wives of Windsor
The fact that my circumstances had changed drastically but my behavior hadn't was beginning to wear on me.
ANTHONY KIEDIS
Scar Tissue
The weirder you're going to behave, the more normal you should look. It works in reverse, too. When I see a kid with three or four rings in his nose, I know there is absolutely nothing extraordinary about that person.
P.J. O'ROURKE
The New York Times Magazine, 1993
The laws of behavior yield to the energy of the individual.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Essays
When we end up creating wrong models of the world based on incorrect laws of human behavior, the world doesn't change its laws to accommodate our ignorance.
AWDHESH SINGH
31 Ways to Happiness
Do what you like.
FRANCOIS RABELAIS
Works
The sum of behavior is to retain a man's own dignity, without intruding upon the liberty of others.
FRANCIS BACON
Advancement of Learning
Oddities and singularities of behavior may attend genius; when they do, they are its misfortune and blemishes; the man of true genius will be ashamed of them; and at least he will never affect to distinguish himself by whimsical peculiarities.
SIR W. TEMPLE
attributed, Day's Collacon
Behavior seemeth to me as a garment of the mind, and to have the conditions of a garment. For it ought to be made in fashion; it ought not to be too curious; it ought to be shaped so as to set forth any good making of the mind, and hide any deformity; and above all, it ought not to be too straight, or restrained for exercise or motion.
FRANCIS BACON
Advancement of Learning
I need a little time off for bad behavior
The devil in me done been asleep too long
DAVID ALLEN COE
"Need a Little Time Off for Bad Behavior"
Behave yoursel' before folk;
Whate'er ye do, when out o' view,
Be cautious aye before folk.
ALEXANDER RODGER
"Behave Yoursel' Before Folk"
Nothing is more adroit than irreproachable conduct.
MADAME DE MAINTENON
Maxims
There is a fair behavior in thee.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Twelfth Night