Giovanni della Casa

You ought to regulate your manner of behaviour towards others, not according to your own humour, but agreeably to the pleasure and inclination of those with whom you converse.

— Giovanni della Casa

As therefore, when we consult, not our own pleasures, but that of our friends, our behaviour will be pleasing and agreeable; our first enquiry must be, what those particulars are, with which the greatest part of mankind are universally delighted; and what those are which, in general, they detest, as troublesome and offensive: For thus we shall easily discover, what kind of conduct, in our intercourse with others, is to be avoided, and what to be adopted and pursued.

— Giovanni della Casa

It is moreover extremely indecent to spit, cough, and expectorate (as it were) in company, as some hearty fellows are apt to do: and more so, when you have blown your nose, to draw aside and examine the contents of your handkerchief; as if you expected pearls or rubies to distil from your brain.

— Giovanni della Casa

There are many and various particulars, which, by a kind of natural instinct, every one judges to be right, and expects to meet with, from those with, whom he converses. Such as mutual benevolence and respect; a desire of pleasing and obliging each other; and the like. Nothing therefore ought to be said or done, which may by any means discover, that those, whose company we are in, are not much beloved, or, at least, much esteemed by us.

— Giovanni della Casa

When you go into public, let your dress be genteel, and suitable to your age and station of life. He that does otherwise, shows a contempt of the world, and too great an opinion of his own importance.

— Giovanni della Casa

We ought to esteem him alone an agreeable and good-natured man, who, in his daily intercourse with others, behaves in such a manner as friends usually behave to each other. For as a person of that rustic character appears, wherever he comes, like a mere stranger: so, on the contrary, a polite man, wherever he goes, seems as easy as if he were amongst his intimate friends and acquaintance.

— Giovanni della Casa