Civility Quotes

“And do as adversaries do in law, strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.”

“The civility of no race can be perfect whilst another race is degraded.”

“Physical force has no value, where there is nothing else. Snow in snow-banks, fire in volcanoes and solfataras is cheap. The luxury of ice is in tropical countries, and midsummer days. The luxury of fire is, to have a little on our hearth; and of electricity, not the volleys of the charged cloud, but the manageable stream on the battery-wires. So of spirit, or energy; the rests or remains of it in the civil and moral man, are worth all the cannibals in the Pacific.”

“You can disagree without being disagreeable.”

“There can be no high civility without a deep morality, though it may not always call itself by that name.”

“Besides the general infusion of wit to heighten civility, the direct splendor of intellectual power is ever welcome in fine society, as the costliest addition to its rule and its credit.”

“Never [enter] into dispute or argument with another. I never yet saw an instance of one of two disputants convincing the other by argument. I have seen many on their getting warm, becoming rude and shooting one another.”

“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.”

“With an evening coat and a white tie, anybody, even a stockbroker, can gain a reputation for being civilized”

“Almost every man we meet requires some civility; requires to be humored; - he has some fame, some talent, some whim of religion or philanthropy in his head that is not to be questioned, and which spoils all conversation with him. But a friend is a sane man who exercises not my ingenuity, but me.”

“It ought to be remembered by all [that] the Games more than 2,000 years ago started as a means of bringing peace between the Greek city-states. And in those days, even if a war was going on, they called off the war in order to hold the Games. I wish we were still as civilized.”

“No people is wholly civilized where a distinction is drawn between stealing an office and stealing a purse.”

“The civility of the world has reached that pitch that their more moral genius is becoming indispensable, and the quality of this race is to be honored for itself.”

“One can always be kind to people about whom one cares nothing.”

“Civility does not ...mean the mere outward gentleness of speech cultivated for the occasion, but an inborn gentleness and desire to do the opponent good.”

“If I thought that I could speak with discrimination and impartiality of the nations of Christendom, I should praise them, but it tasks me too much. They seem to be the most civil and humane, but I may be mistaken.”

“There is reason in the distinction of civil and uncivil. The manners are sometimes so rough a rind that we doubt whether they cover any core or sap-wood at all.”

“Civility is not a sign of weakness.”

“So let us begin anew - remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof”

“They parted at last with mutual civility, and possibly a mutual desire of never meeting again.”

“Civility is a desire to receive civilities, and to be accounted well-bred.”

“Familiarity is a suspension of almost all the laws of civility, which libertinism has introduced into society under the notion of ease.”

“Ours is a nation of laws: of citizens who live under them and for the citizens who enforce them. So, to a community in Ferguson that is rightly hurting and looking for answers, let me call once again for us to seek some understanding rather than simply holler at each other. Let's seek to heal rather than to wound each other.”

“what we need in the world is manners ... I think that if, instead of preaching brotherly love, we preached good manners, we might get a little further. It sounds less righteous and more practical.”

“I am the eternal optimist. I think that, over time, people respond to civility and -- and rational argument.”