We cannot always oblige; but we can always speak obligingly.
“Answer me, you who believe that animals are only machines. Has nature arranged for this animal to have all the machinery of feelings only in order for it not to have any at all?”
“Virtuous men alone possess friends.”
“The true character of liberty is independence, maintained by force.”
“Praise in public; criticize in private.”
“Straight-forwardness, without the rules of propriety, becomes rudeness.”
“We speak little if not egged on by vanity.”
“Civility is a desire to receive civilities, and to be accounted well-bred.”
“In truth, politeness is artificial good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue.”
“It hurts not the tongue to give fair words.”
