Quotes About Civility

In a perfect penal code, vulgarity would be punished with the death penalty.

Oh, come, darling,' Guy protested, 'I didn't want to marry Sophie, but one has to be polite.

Vulgarity is simply the conduct of other people.

Bore: a man who is never unintentionally rude.

Few things would gratify me as much as a rediscovered respect for things belonging to others. Not abusing the property of others (or that of the community) is one of the ways in which we respect others. It is an essential part of being considerate guests, no matter where we are: in an airplane, in a friend's home, in a movie theater, in a doctor's office, in a public library, or in a public square.

a crucial measure of our success in life is the way we treat one another every day of our lives.

We must be as courteous to a man as we are to a picture, which we are willing to give the advantage of a good light (p. 41).

Some may say that by being civil to each other we stifled our self-expression. But we can also say that we chose to express one part of ourselves rather than another. Although it may appear that we give up self-expression when we exercise it, in truth restraint can be as much an expression of our Selves as is unfettered behavior. Yes, practicing civility may limit our immediate gratification. That's why we are tempted to be rude (p.24).

yielding our seat on a bus whenever it seems appropriate; alerting the person sitting behind us on a plane when we are about to lower the back of our seat; standing close to the right-side handrail on an escalator; stopping to give directions to someone who is lost; stopping at red lights; disagreeing with poise; yielding with grace when losing an argument, these diverse behaviors are all imbued with the spirit of civility.

I am convinced that, to a significant extent, life is what our relationships make it. …To learn how to be happy we must learn how to live well with others, and civility is a key to that (p. 6).

other people have needs and feelings too – such as the simple need to be acknowledged. Bonjour also sets the tone for a child to observe other rules of civility.

FROM BUNDI I wanted to leave immediately for the South – that sunlit place in my imagination, for whose old-world charm and civility I had developed a positive yearning after several months at a stretch in the barbarous North.

The civility we need will not come from watching our tongues. It will come from valuing our differences.

It is in the common good to hold our political differences and the conflicts they create in a way that does not unravel the civic community on which democracy depends. My

Patience and propriety. It was the only graceful thing to do.

What is word for good together living? Nobody shits in the well." I laughed. "Civilization?" He nodded, splaying his fingers: amusement. "Yes," he said. "Speaking with hands is civilization

comport yourself with more decorum in the future.

Shit is a serious business, and anyone caught dumping it in the streets is arrested. With

In polite democratic society its important to note stratification but impolite to label the layers.

The measure of civilized behavior is compassion.

Those who do not accept due process, who refuse to acknowledge the democratic mandate, are a cancer on society.

When a society pretends to even a shred of civility — and in the bourgeois century, most societies did — it is hard to predict just where or when oppositional humor will overstep the bounds of propriety or of the law.