Civility

Civility signifies orderly behavior and politeness. Historically, civility also meant training in the humanities.

Quotes

• Politeness and civility are the best capital ever invested in business.
  • P. T. Barnum, in Art of Money Getting : Rules for Making Money (1880), Ch. 17: "Be polite and kind to your customers"

• Fortunately for you, we British judge man’s civility not by his compassion for his friends, but by his compassion for his enemies.
  • Dan Brown, in The Da Vinci Code (2003), Ch. 67

• Civility is not a tactic or a sentiment. It is the determined choice of trust over cynicism, of community over chaos. And this commitment, if we keep it, is a way to shared accomplishment.
  • George W. Bush, First inaugural address, Washington, D.C. (20 January 2001)

• In one aspect civilization is the habit of civility; and civility is the refinement which townsmen, who made the word, thought possible only in the civitas or city.
  • Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, Chap. 1, p. 2

• Disobedience without civility, discipline, discrimination, non-violence, is certain destruction. Disobedience combined with love is the living water of life. Civil disobedience is a beautiful variant to signify growth, it is not discordance which spells death.
  • Mahatma Gandhi, Young India (1 May 1922)

• Straightforwardness without civility is like a surgeon's knife, effective but unpleasant. Candor with courtesy is helpful and admirable.
  • Yukteswar Giri, Autobiography of a Yogi (1946)

• A winning wave, deserving note,
  In the tempestuous petticoat:
  A careless shoe-string, in whose tie
  I see a wild civility:
  Do more bewitch me than when art
  Is too precise in every part.
  • Robert Herrick, in Hesperides, 83: "Delight in Disorder"

• There is so great a need for civility and mutual respect among those of differing beliefs and philosophies. We must not be partisans of any doctrine of ethnic superiority. We live in a world of diversity. We can and must be respectful toward those with whose teachings we may not agree. We must be willing to defend the rights of others who may become the victims of bigotry.
  • Gordon B. Hinckley, First talk as President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, April 3,1995.

• Civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.
  • John F. Kennedy, Inaugural address, Washington D.C. (20 January 1961) · video

• We proved that with civility, common sense, building bridges, working with coalitions and working with people one at a time, we could do something.
  • Angus King, as quoted in "Former Gov. King announces he'll run for U.S. Senate" in The Portland Press Herald (6 March 2012)

• I hold to the idea that civility, understood as the willingness to engage in public discourse, is the first virtue of citizens.
  • Mark Kingwell, The World We Want, Preface, p. viii. (2000)

• The Indians, whom we call barbarous, observe much more decency and civility in their discourses and conversation, giving one another a fair silent hearing till they have quite done; and then answering them calmly, and without noise or passion. And if it be not so in this civiliz'd part of the world, we must impute it to a neglect in education, which has not yet reform'd this antient piece of barbarity amongst us.
  • John Locke, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693), Sec. 145

• The demand for more civility in politics today should be directed toward improving the quality of our insults, seeking civility in wit rather than blandness.
  • Harvey Mansfield, How to Understand Politics: What the Humanities Can Say to Science, Full text online (2007)

• A good many of you are probably acquainted with the old proverb, "Speak softly and carry a big stick — you will go far." If a man continually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big stick will not save him from trouble, and neither will speaking softly avail, if back of the softness there does not lie strength, power … So it is with the nation. It is both foolish and undignified to indulge in undue self-glorification, and, above all, in loose-tongued denunciation of other peoples.
  • Theodore Roosevelt, speech at Minnesota State Fair, as it appeared in the Minneapolis Tribune (3 September 1901)

• I intend to help give voice to my fellow citizens who believe, as I do, that we must return to an era of civility in government driven by a common purpose to fulfill the promise that is unique to America.
  • Olympia Snowe, in Official statement announcing her retirement form the US Senate (28 February 2012), also quoted in "Snowe to Retire" at "The Page" at TIME.com (28 February 2012).

• Theoretical liberties, however, we are too often assured at the expense of actual civilities, and as civilities were lost, litigation emerged as a way of life with a consequent reduction in real liberties for all persons except lawyers, who, like mercenaries, are profiteers of discord. Persons were actually allowed, by law, under the guise of free expression, to shout into the faces of those who held differing opinions and to intrude upon their privacy. Liberty has two legs. Vigilance is certainly one, but civility is as certainly the other.
  • Sheri S. Tepper, Six Moon Dance (1998), ISBN 0-380-79198-6 p. 32 (Chapter 3)

• Enforced uniformity confounds civil and religious liberty and denies the principles of Christianity and civility. No man shall be required to worship or maintain a worship against his will.
  • Roger Williams, as quoted in The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom (1991) edited by Albert J. Menendez and Edd Doerr