Formality Quotes

“To dream in doctrines, how tidy!”
― John le Carré, Call for the Dead

“In England I am always madam; I arrived too late to ever be a miss. In New York I have only been madamed once, by the doorman at the Carlyle Hotel.”
― Anna Quindlen, Imagined London: A Tour of the World's Greatest Fictional City

“Formality is sufficiently revenged upon the world for being so unreasonably laughed at; it is destroyed, it is true, but it hath the spiteful satisfaction of seeing everything destroyed with it.”
― George Savile Halifax, A Character of King Charles the Second

“First reach your target in your mind, then reaching your target in reality will just be a formality!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“If only there was a way to escape this reality, if only there was a way to erase all this formality, if only there was a way to figure out your mentality, if only there was a way to rid all the theatricality,if only...however sadly all we think of is practicality, so we will never reach any finality.”
― Dalal Gabara

“Therefore in one line why don't these (The higher authority of an office) people just say, "You are our sex toy. We will use you as our vibrator until we derive pleasure in earning profits from you. Once we learn that you are of no use and you are not giving the pleasure we need, we will kick you or throw you in a dustbin as we throw a condom in dustbin after sex.”
― Sudeep Nagarkar, It Started With a Friend Request

“What have they said to us?"
"I could translate, but it would be meaningless. They have welcomed us in the name of their Emperor, who appears to be an over-Master. The short, round one is Mediator to this Emperor."
"Ah. We have at last found one who can communicate. Speak to her."
"But he has said nothing!"
"Say nothing in return.”
― Larry Niven, The Mote in God's Eye

“It is interesting that even in their beginnings the Nazis were prudent enough never to use slogans which, like democracy, republic, dictatorship, or monarchy, indicated a specific form of government. It is as though, in this one matter, they had always known that they would be entirely original. Every discussion about the actual form of their future government could be dismissed as empty talk about mere formalities—the state, according to Hitler, being only a “means” for the conservation of the race, as the state, according to Bolshevik propaganda, is only an instrument in the struggle of classes.”
― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

“If formality and courtesy take over the feelings . . . how silly and meaningless these things could become. And despite all this, I still take part in it!”
― Fumio Obata, Just So Happens

“If only there was a way to escape this reality, if only there was a way to erase all this formality, if only there was a way to figure out your mentality, if only there was a way to rid all the theatricality, if only...however sadly all we think of is practicality, so we will never reach any finality.”
― Dalal Gebara

“The automatic use of Du, even to strangers if they were friends of friends, was very surprising. Sie, it seemed, meant relegation to the outer darkness and people had been known to fight with swords about the matter.”
― Patrick Leigh Fermor, Between the Woods and the Water

“Formal business situations are likely to be the least revealing because these are the times when all of us are most likely to have our ‘game faces' on.”
― Abhishek Ratna, No Parking. No Halt. Success Non Stop!

“Believers should be open to and encourage the Spirit's moving within each one, including the spontaneity from individual initiatives when gathered together. Believers need to be vigilant to prevent formality of liturgy where the Spirit is stifled, and individual initiatives are not allowed.”
― Henry Hon, ONE: Unfolding God's Eternal Purpose from House to House

“The word "Formal" in this context is a euphemism for "useless”
― Harry M. Schey, Div, Grad, Curl, and All That: An Informal Text on Vector Calculus

“One of the reasons that formality is invented is to keep the souls away from contamination!”
― Abhijit Kar Gupta, Scientific Computing in Python

“To me, formalness requires you to be on your best behavior. This naturally puts the focus on how you act, which promotes focusing on yourself, which instantly kills all hope of true connection.”
― Myquilla Smith

“ai 'zauq' takalluf me.n hai takliif saraasar
aaraam me.n hai vo jo takalluf nahii.n kartaa
(The poet/lover favours a casual and frank life because he thinks that in formality there is only discomfort.)”
― Zauq Sheikh Ibrahim

“It is one of the defining features of any bureaucracy that those who staff it are selected by formal, impersonal criteria. Most often, some kind of test. That is, bureaucrats are not, say, elected like politicians. But neither should they get the job just because they are someone's cousin.

In theory, they are meritocracies. In fact, everyone knows that the system is compromised in a thousand different ways. Many of the staff are, in fact, there just because they are someone's cousin. And everybody knows it.”
― David Graeber, The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy