Can class be learned?

[Thetagirl218]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Don't get me wrong. Manners are very important, but they are outward. Class is inward -- it's an attitude of respecting yourself and respecting others, of acting with dignity and or treating others with dignity. Learning manners is about changing habits. Becoming a person with class is about changing attitudes and ways of thinking and of viewing others.

I love this quote!!!

[AKA_Monet]

To the OP: Much of American values of etiquette and protocol comes from the English and French royal courts, just for some historical perspective.

Might I suggest reviewing Rudyard Kipling's "If", another great example of "class", IMHO.

IMHO, the United States does not have a legal "class" structure. Any "class" structure that you observe publicly is not legally based on current government-approved structure.

But, as far as your definition of "class", MysticCat's is probably the most accurate description. I would call that "Character".

And I was always taught that you have a million dollar person and a ten cent person. A million dollar person can put on a ten cent suit and still be a million dollar person. But a 10 cent person puts on a million dollar suit, you still have a 10 cent person...

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by AKA_Monet

Might I suggest reviewing Rudyard Kipling's "If", another great example of "class", IMHO.

I'm a big Rudyard Kipling fan, and that's one of my all time favorites. I like it so much that, just in case there's someone who doesn't know it, I'm going to post it here:

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream -- and not make dreams your master;
If you can think -- and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
'Or walk with kings -- nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run --
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And -- which is more -- you'll be a Man, my son!

(BTW, the line "If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same" is written above the players' entrance to center court at Wimbledon.)

And thanks to the fan clubbers.