Civility Quotes - Page 5

• What matters at this stage is the construction of local forms of community within which civility and the intellectual and moral life can be sustained through the new dark ages which are already upon us. And if the tradition of the virtues was able to survive the horrors of the last dark ages, we are not entirely without ground for hope. This time however the barbarians are not waiting beyond the frontiers; they have already been governing us for quite some time.

  Alasdair MacIntyre

  Dark, What Matters, Community

  Alasdair MacIntyre (1981). “After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory”, Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd

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• Cruelty to dumb animals is one of the distinguishing vices of low and base minds. Wherever it is found, it is a certain mark of ignorance and meanness; a mark which all the external advantages of wealth, splendour, and nobility, cannot obliterate. It is consistent neither with learning nor true civility.

  William Jones

  Ignorance, Animal, Dumb

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• There are many faculties in man, each of which takes its turn of activity, and that faculty which is paramount in any period and exerts itself through the strongest nation, determines the civility of that age: and each age thinks its own the perfection of reason.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Thinking, Civilization

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1243, Delphi Classics

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• Patience is no small, fell-good personal quality. It is at the heart of diplomacy and civility, lawfulness and civil order. Without it, people can't work together and society can't function at all. With it, we create the possibility of peace between people and between nations.

  M. J. Ryan

  Patience, Heart, Order

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• Among the arts of conversation no one pleases more than mutual deference or civility, which leads us to resign our own inclinations to those of our companions, and to curb and conceal that presumption and arrogance so natural to the human mind.

  David Hume

  Art, Arrogance, Mind

  David Hume (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of David Hume (Illustrated)”, p.651, Delphi Classics

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• We need to seek wise leaders who will seek common ground among Americans instead of dividing us further for political gain. As citizens, we must embrace those who embrace ideas, thoughtfulness, civility and kindness to others no matter what their political beliefs.

  James McGreevey

  Wise, Kindness, Ideas

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• I hold to the idea that civility, understood as the willingness to engage in public discourse, is the first virtue of citizens.

  Mark Kingwell

  Ideas, Citizens, Firsts

  "The World We Want: Virtue, Vice, and the Good Citizen". Book by Mark Kingwell, 2000.

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• The cultivated person's first duty is to be always prepared to rewrite the encyclopedia.

  Umberto Eco

  Knowledge, Intelligent, People

  Umberto Eco (2013). “Serendipities: Language and Lunacy”, p.20, Columbia University Press

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• I've spent my life living in rural America, some of it in blue state Vermont, some of it in red state upstate New York. They're quite alike in many ways. And quite wonderful. It's important that even in an urbanized and suburbanized country, we continue to take rural America seriously. And the thing that makes Vermont in particular so special, and I hope this book captures some of it, is the basic underlying civility of its political life. That's rooted in the town meeting. Each of the towns in Vermont governs itself.

  Bill McKibben

  Country, Book, Political

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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• The truth is, the more kind and liberal a man is, the more generous will be the patronage bestowed upon him.

  P. T. Barnum

  Men, Kind, Truth Is

  P. T. Barnum (2007). “The Art of Money Getting: Golden Rules for Making Money”, p.42, Filiquarian Publishing, LLC.

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• Keep your own secret, and get out other people's. Keep your own temper, and artfully warm other people's. Counterwork your rivalswith diligence and dexterity, but at the same time with the utmost personal civility to them: and be firm without heat.

  Lord Chesterfield

  People, Secret, Dexterity

  Lord Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope Earl of Chesterfield (1855). “The Works of Lord Chesterfield: Including His Letters to His Son, Etc : to which is Prefixed, an Original Life of the Author”, p.483

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• Good manners are made up of petty sacrifices.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Happiness, Sacrifice, Good Man

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2581, Delphi Classics

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• 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.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Friendship, Exercise, Men

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2015). “Emerson's Essays: Top Essays”, p.65, 谷月社

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• Man's civility is lagging behind his technological ability. It could mean disaster and catastrophe for the whole world. We're all sinners, everyone of us, and a radical change is needed for all of us.

  Billy Graham

  Mean, Men, World

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• Constant conflict is actually often good politics. Because the more you can inflame your supporters the more likely they are to show up at election day. And if they're more inflamed than the other side, even if the other side has more people agreeing with it, you'll win, because your crowd will show up.

  William J. Clinton

  Party, Winning, Reality

  "Bill Clinton on shutdown: 'politics is not theology'". William J. Clinton's speech at a convention of the National Community Pharmacists Association in Orlando, politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com. October 14, 2013.

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• Civility is not simply about manners.

  Jim Leach

  Manners

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• I was under the librarians' protection. Civil servants and servants of civility, they had my back. The would be whatever they needed to be that day: information professionals, teachers, police, community organizers, computer technicians, historians, confidantes, clerks, social workers, storytellers, or, in this case, guardians of my peace.

  Marilyn Johnson

  Teacher, Community, Police

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• Manlius ... took care in his invitations, actively sought to exclude from his circle crude and vulgar men like Caius Valerius. But they were all around; it was Manlius who lived in a dream world, and his bubble of civility was becoming smaller and smaller. Caius Valerius, powerful member of a powerful family, had never even heard of Plato. A hundred, even fifty years before, such an absurdity would have been inconceivable. Now it was surprising if such a man did know anything of philosophy, and even if it was explained, he would not wish to understand.

  Iain Pears

  Dream, Powerful, Plato

  Iain Pears (2003). “Dream of Scipio”, p.18, Penguin

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• I think I'm speaking for a bunch of girls when I say that the idea that feminism is completely natural and shouldn't even be something that people find mildly surprising. It's just a part of being a girl in 2013.

  Lorde

  Girl, Reality, Thinking

  "Super Heroine: An Interview With Lorde". Interview with Tavi Gevinson, www.rookiemag.com. January 2, 2014.

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• Seattle is not an overly friendly city. It is a civil city, but not altogether friendly. People from outside mistake the civility for friendliness. Seattle is full of people who have their own lives to live. They won't waste their time being friendly. But they are civil.

  Jonathan Raban

  Mistake, Cities, People

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• The greatest threat to civility - and ultimately civilization - is an excess of certitude. The world is much menaced just now by people who think that the world and their duties in it are clear and simple. They are certain that they know what - who - created the universe and what this creator wants them to do to make our little speck in the universe perfect, even if extreme measures - even violence - are required.

  George Will

  Simple, Thinking, Civilization

  George Will (2008). “One Man's America: The Pleasures and Provocations of Our Singular Nation”, p.335, Crown Forum

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• It is so much easier to extol the virtues of civility than to talk civilly about the virtues we need to uphold.

  Amitai Etzioni

  Needs, Virtue, Easier

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• True respect means taking other people's beliefs seriously and assuming they are adult and intelligent enough to be able to cope with it if you tell them, clearly and civility, why you think they are totally, utterly and disastrously wrong.

  Julian Baggini

  Mean, Intelligent, Thinking

  "Respect for you and your crazy beliefs" by Julian Baggini, www.theguardian.com. December 2, 2011.

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• Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible.

  Janice Rogers Brown

  Family, War, Moving

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• All buildings, large or small, public or private, have a public face, a facade; they therefore, without exception, have a positive or negative effect on the quality of the public realm, enriching or impoverishing it in a lasting and radical manner. The architecture of the city and public space is a matter of common concern to the same degree as laws and language—they are the foundation of civility and civilisation.

  Leon Krier

  Law, Cities, Space

  Leon Krier (2009). “The Architecture of Community”, p.439, Island Press

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