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Film - Live-Action
Ariadne Oliver: Do you really think the help had motive?
Hercule Poirot: The help always have motive. First having to endure to be called, "the help."
Hercule Poirot: The help always have motive. First having to endure to be called, "the help."
—A Haunting in Venice (2023)
Literature
"Never can be too nice to your inferiors. She's clumsy, dumb, and she'll screw up the coffee order, but you know what? She'll say nice things about me to her friends and coworkers, and they'll pass it on to others, and if you do that to everyone you meet in the White House, the nasty leaks won't happen, the anonymous sources won't drop a dime, and there're no tell-all books telling the world the secrets of the Barrett White House."
— President Evil Keegan Barrett tells how to exploit this trope, Blowback (2022)
"A man who is polite to those he has authority over will always be a good man."
"The Sullivan show was broadcast live in the East, but it used to be delayed for California, where it was heard three hours later. So I was already home in Rockville Centre on this Sunday night when the call came... I thought it was somebody kidding me, maybe Larry Storch doing Jack Benny. Again the caller spoke. "Alan, this is Jack."
"Yeah," I said. "Sure."
"For God's sake," he said, "What do I have to do, play 'Love in Bloom'? This is Jack Benny, I just saw you on the Sullivan show, and you were wonderful."
He had gone to a lot of trouble—he'd phoned around, and finally reached my agent—to find my number, but that's what he was like, that's what Jack Benny was about."
"Yeah," I said. "Sure."
"For God's sake," he said, "What do I have to do, play 'Love in Bloom'? This is Jack Benny, I just saw you on the Sullivan show, and you were wonderful."
He had gone to a lot of trouble—he'd phoned around, and finally reached my agent—to find my number, but that's what he was like, that's what Jack Benny was about."
— Alan King, Name Dropping: The Life and Lies of Alan King
If you want to know what a lady is really like, don't look at her; for she may be too clever for you. Don't look at the men round her, for they may be too silly about her. But look at some other woman who is always near to her, and especially one who is under her. You will see in that mirror her real face, and the face mirrored in Mrs. Sands was very ugly.
Live-Action TV
"There's a lot of people here today, including some from the Corps, and I notice that every one of them is either my father's rank or higher. That doesn't surprise me, because, if the test of a man is how he treats those he has power over, it was a test my father failed."
— Dr. House at his father's funeral, House
"But I always found that caddying taught a lot about...how you're supposed to treat people. You know, I'm carrying a bag for you, and I'm going to be doing it for the next four hours. Now you can either treat me like your slave, or you can treat me like, you know, a friend, or an equal, or a person. And I always found that you can tell a lot about people by the way they treat waiters and waitresses."
— Bill Murray on The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder
"Yeah, I'm a big game man. I like to play a game called 'being nice to the waiter.' If you win, you get to not go to hell."
— Will Truman, to a rude date, Will & Grace
Video Games
"Mister Venigni is the richest man in Krat. His company manufactures most of Krat's exports. He's... peculiar, but a good-hearted man. Even though he's rich, he treats every employee with respect. I heard he went to shut the factory down. I hope he's safe. I wouldn't want to lose my best customer."
"I learned many facts as a young man that are useful during wartime: fishing twine will hold for a suture, strong palinka will do for disinfectant... and a doctor must never abuse his orderlies - so you do not find a shit taken in your locker. Because they do the real work, circulating what is needed to where it is needed."
— Dr Vasile Varias, The Secret World
Western Animation
Bruce Wayne: *being handed his skeet gun* Thanks Kevin.
Warren Lawford: "Thanks Kevin?" Awfully chummy with the help, Bruce. Do you thank the garbage man for picking up your trash?
Bruce: If I happen to run into him.
Warren Lawford: "Thanks Kevin?" Awfully chummy with the help, Bruce. Do you thank the garbage man for picking up your trash?
Bruce: If I happen to run into him.
Real Life
"I don't trust anyone who's nice to me but rude to the waiter. Because they would treat me the same way if I were in that position."
"A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person."
"He never yet no villainy ne said
In all his life, unto no manner wight.note
He was a very perfect gentle knight."
In all his life, unto no manner wight.note
He was a very perfect gentle knight."
"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good."
"The power which the strong have over the weak, the employer over the employed, the educated over the unlettered, the experienced over the confiding, even the clever over the silly — the forbearing or inoffensive use of all this power or authority, or a total abstinence from it when the case admits it, will show the gentleman in a plain light."
"In short he was a perfect cavaliero, And to his very valet seemed a hero."
— Rochdale
"Treat your inferiors as you would be treated by your superiors."
— Seneca, Epistle 47:11
"You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing to him."
