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CIVILITY --- CIVILIZATION
CIVIL RIGHTS

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CIVILITY

[QUOTES FOLLOW LINKS]

see:

BEHAVIOR

BREEDING

CHEERFULNESS

CONDUCT

COOPERATION

COURTESY

GENTLEMEN

GRACE

HOSPITALITY

KINDNESS

MANNERS

NICE

POLITE

REFINED

RESPECT

TACT


Be nice to people on your way up because you
might meet 'em on your way down.
--Jimmy Durante [James Francis Durante] (1893—1980)
American comedian.
Also attributed to:
--Wilson Mizner (1876—1933)
American playwright.

Be civil to all, sociable to many, familiar with
few, friend to one, enemy to none.
--Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.

Moving parts in rubbing contact require
lubrication to avoid excessive wear.
Honorifics and formal politeness provide
lubrication where people rub together.
Often the very young, the untraveled,
the naive, the unsophisticated deplore
these formalities as "empty,"
"meaningless," or "dishonest," and scorn
to use them. No matter how "pure" their
motives, they thereby throw sand into
machinery that does not work too well
at best.
--Robert Heinlein (1907—1988)
American science-fiction writer.

Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.
--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841—1935)
Justice of the United States Supreme Court,
legal historian, and philosopher.
Compaρνa de Tobacos v. Collector, 275 U.S. [1904]

-

Every old man complains of the growing depravity
of the world, of the petulance and insolence of
the rising generation. He recounts the decency
and regularity of former times, and celebrates
the discipline and sobriety of the age in which
his youth was passed; a happy age which is now
no more to be expected, since confusion has
broken in upon the world, and thrown down all
the boundaries of civility and reverence.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
_The Rambler_ (English twice-weekly journal 1750—1752), #50


When once the forms of civility are violated, there
remains little hope of return to kindness or decency.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
_The Rambler_ (English twice-weekly journal 1750—1752), #55

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Civil society depends on people agreeing to
two things: Don't deliberately give offense
to others, and don't be too easily offended.
Too few people are giving any thought to
either.
--Karl Lembke

Civility costs nothing, and buys everything.
--Lady Mary Wortley Montagu [nιe Pierrepont] (1689—1762)
English aristocrat and writer.
Letter to Mary, Countess of Bute [30 May 1756].

Kind words produce their own image in men's souls;
and a beautiful image it is. They soothe and quiet
and comfort the hearer. They shame him out of his
sour, morose, unkind feelings. We have not yet begun
to use kind words in such abundance as they ought to
be used.
--Blaise Pascal (1623—1662)
French mathematician, physicist, and moralist.

That character in conversation which commonly passes
for agreeable is made up of civility and falsehood.
--Alexander Pope (1688—1744)
English poet.

To be civilized is to be incapable of
giving unnecessary offense, it is to
have some quality of consideration
for all who cross our path.
--Agnes Repplier (1855—1950)
American author.

Better a false 'Good morning' than a sincere 'Go to Hell.'
--Yiddish proverb

-----

decorous (adj.)
Not offensive in behavior, manners, appearance, or the
like; proper; well-behaved.
Syn.: proper, decent, mannerly
Related: genteel, acceptable, fitting, civil, appropriate,
tasteful, prim, respectable, modest, polite, refined,
Derived: decorously, adv. ; decorousness, n.



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CIVILIZATION

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see "THE HUMAN RACE" for related links


The exact measure of the progress of civilization is the
degree in which the intelligence of the common mind
has prevailed over wealth and brute force.
--George Bancroft (1800—1891)
American historian and public official.

Our society must make it right and possible for old people not to fear the
young or be deserted by them, for the test of a civilization is the way that
it cares for its helpless members.
--Pearl S. Buck (1892—1973)
American author noted for her novels of life in China;
winner of the 1938 Nobel Prize for Literature.
_My Several Worlds_ [1954]

[T]he greatest menace to our civilization today is the conflict between
giant organized systems of self-righteousness — each system only too
delighted to find that the other is wicked — each only too glad that
the sins give it the pretext for still deeper hatred and animosity. The
effect of the whole situation is barbarizing.
--Herbert Butterfield (1900—1979)
British historian and religious thinker.
_Christianity, Diplomacy and War_, p. 43 [1953]

The three great elements of modern civilization,
Gunpowder, Printing, and the Protestant Religion.
--Thomas Carlyle (1795—1881)
Scottish historian and political philosopher.
_Essays_ "The State of German Literature" [1838]

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The goal of every culture is to decay through over-civilization;
the factors of decadence, — luxury, scepticism, weariness and
superstition, — are constant. The civilization of one epoch
becomes the manure of the next.
--Cyril Connolly (1903—1974)
English writer.
_The Unquiet Grave_ [1944], part II, "Te Palinure Petens"


The civilized are those who get more out of life than the
uncivilized, and for this the uncivilized have not forgiven
them.
--Cyril Connolly (1903—1974)
English writer.

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The degree of civilization in a society is revealed by entering its prisons.
--Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821—1881)
Russian novelist, journalist, and short story writer.
_The House of the Dead_ [1862] , tr. Constance Garnett [1957]

Our civilization is still in a middle stage, scarcely beast,
in that it is no longer wholly guided by instinct; scarcely
human, in that it is not yet wholly guided by reason.
--Theodore Dreiser (1871—1945)
American novelist.

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A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself
within. The essential causes of Rome's decline lay in her people, her morals,
her class struggle, her failing trade, her bureaucratic despotism, her stifling
taxes, her consuming wars.
--Will Durant (1885—1981)
American philosopher and writer.
_Caesar and Christ_, epilogue [The Story of Civilization Vol 3] [1944]


Civilization begins with order, grows
with liberty, and dies with chaos.
--Will Durant (1885—1981)
American philosopher and writer.
Quoted in Ashton Applewhite, Tripp Evans, & Andrew Frothingham
_And I Quote: The Definitive Collection..._, p. 442 [1992].


Civilization is not inherited; it has to be learned and
earned by each generation anew; if the transmission
should be interrupted for one century, civilization
would die, and we should be savages again.
--Will [William James] Durant (1885—1981) & Ariel Durant (1898—1981)
American husband and wife writing collaborators.
_The Lessons of History_, p. 101 [1968]

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[When asked what he thought of Western civilization:]
I think it would be a good idea.
--Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869—1948)
Indian statesman and leader of the nationalistic movement against British rule.
Quoted in _America Now_ (ed. John G. Kirk) [1968].

The West is overwhelmingly dominant now and
will remain number one in terms of power and
influence well into the twenty-first century. Gradual,
inexorable, and fundamental changes, however,
are also occurring in the balances of power among
civilizations, and the power of the West relative to
that of other civilizations will continue to decline ...
The most significant increases in power are accruing
and will continue to accrue to Asian civilizations,
with China gradually emerging as the society most
likely to challenge the West for global influence.
These shifts in power among civilizations are leading
and will lead to the revival and increased cultural
assertiveness of non-Western societies and to
their increasing rejection of Western culture.
--Samuel Huntington (1927—2008)
American political scientist.
_Clash of Civilizations_ [1996] pp.82-83.

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free,
in a state of civilization, it expects what
never was and never will be.
--Thomas Jefferson (1743—1826)
American statesman and president [1801—1809].
Letter to Colonel Charles Yancy [6 January 1916].

A decent provision for the poor, is the true test of civilization.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
In James Boswell _The Life of Samuel Johnson_ "26 October 1769" [1791].

In a theatre it happened that a fire started off stage. The clown
came out to tell the audience. They thought it was a joke and
applauded. He told them again, and they became still more
hilarious. This is the way, I suppose, that the world will be
destroyed — amid the universal hilarity of wits and wags
who think it is all a joke.
--Sφren Kierkegaard (1813—1855)
Danish philosopher.
"Diapsalmata" _Either/Or_ [1843]

It should by now be clear that we are facing a
mood and a movement far transcending the level of
issues and policies and the governments that pursue
them. This is no less than a clash of civilizations — the
perhaps irrational but surely historic reaction of an
ancient rival against our Judaeo-Christian heritage,
our secular present, and the worldwide expansion of
both. It is crucially important that we on our side
should not be pushed into an equally historic but
also equally irrational reaction against that rival.
--Bernard Lewis (1916— )
British-born American professor and Middle-Eastern scholar.
"The Roots of Muslim Rage"
_Atlantic Monthly_ v. 266 [September 1990] p.60.

A sentimental misanthropist coined the often cited aphorism "The more I see of
human beings, the more I like animals". I maintain the contrary: only the person
who knows animals, including the highest and most nearly related to ourselves,
and who has gained insight into evolution, will be able to apprehend the unique
position of man. We are the highest achievement reached so far by the great
constructors of evolution. We are their 'latest' but certainly not their last word.
The scientist must not regard anything as absolute, not even the laws of pure
reason. He must remain aware of the great fact, discovered by Heraclitus, that
nothing whatever really remains the same even for one moment, but that everything
is perpetually changing. To regard man, the most ephemeral and rapidly evolving
of all species, as the final and unsurpassable achievement of creation, especially
at his present-day particularly dangerous and disagreeable stage of development,
is certainly the most arrogant and dangerous of all untenable doctrines. If I thought
of man as the final image of God, I should not know what to think of God. But
when I consider that our ancestors, at a time fairly recent in relation to the earth's
history, were perfectly ordinary apes, closely related to chimpanzees, I see a
glimmer of hope. It does not require very great optimism to assume that from
us human beings something better and higher may evolve. Far from seeing in
man the irrevocable and unsurpassable image of God, I assert — more modestly
and, I believe, in greater awe of the Creation and its infinite possibilities — that
the long-sought missing link between animals and the really humane being is
ourselves!
--Konrad Lorenz (1903—1989)
Austrian zoologist.
_On Aggression_ [1963], ch 12 "On the Virtue of Scientific Humility"

Men become civilized not in proportion to their willingness
to believe but in proportion to their readiness to doubt.
--H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (1880—1956)
American journalist and literary critic.

There are historic situations in which refusal to defend the
inheritance of a civilization, however imperfect, against
tyranny and aggression may result in consequences even
worse than war.
--Reinhold Niebuhr (1892—1971)
American theologian.

I believe that Western civilization, after some disgusting glitches,
has become almost civilized. I believe it is our first duty to protect
that civilization. I believe it is our second duty to improve it. I believe
it is our third duty to extend it if we can. But let's be careful about
that last point. Not everybody is ready to be civilized. I wasn't in
1969.
--P.J. O'Rourke (1947— )
American political satirist.

If civilization had been left in female hands,
we would still be living in grass huts.
--Camille Paglia (1947— )
American writer and social critic.
_Sexual Personae_, ch. I [1990]

Any comfortable American who is cynical of progress — or the
competent decency of modern civilization — hasn't pondered
how life was for our ancestors. Any day that cossacks haven't
burned your home should start out a happy one, overflowing
with optimism.
--M.N. Plano, quoted by David Brin, keynote address delivered
to the Libertarian Party National Convention in Indianapolis [5 July 2002].

You can't say civilization don't advance, however,
for in every war they kill you in a new way.
--Will Rogers [William Penn Adair Rogers] (1879—1935)
American humorist and actor.
In "New York Times" [23 December 1929].

The first man who, having fenced in a piece of land, said,
'This is mine,' and found people naive enough to believe
him, that man was the true founder of civil society.
--Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712—1778)
French philosopher and novelist.
_Discourse upon the Origin and Foundation of the Inequality Among Mankind_ [1761]

To destroy a people, you must first sever their roots.
--Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918—2008)
Russian novelist.

When man learns to understand and control his own
behavior as well as he is learning to understand and
control the behavior of crop plants and domestic
animals, he may be justified in believing that he has
become civilized.
--Elwin Charles Stakman (1885—1979)

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Civilizations, I believe, come to birth and proceed to grow
by successfully responding to successive challenges. They
break down and go to pieces if and when a challenge
confronts them that they fail to meet.
--Arnold Toynbee (1889—1975)
English historian.
_Civilization on Trial_ [1948], ch. 4


Civilizations die from suicide, not murder.
--Arnold Toynbee (1889—1975)
English historian.
_A Study of History_, in 12 vol. [1934—1961]

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When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers,
therefore, are the founders of human civilization.
--Daniel Webster (1782—1852)
American orator and politician.
_Remarks on Agriculture_, p. 457

If there hadn't been women we'd still be squatting in a
cave eating raw meat, because we made civilization in
order to impress our girlfriends.
--Orson Welles (1915—1985)
American motion-picture actor, director, producer, and writer.
In a conversation with David Frost as quoted in Joseph
McBride _Orson Welles: Actor and Director_ [1977].

The sum of the whole matter is this, that our civilization cannot
survive materially unless it be redeemed spiritually.
--Woodrow Wilson (1856—1924)
American Democratic statesman and President [1913—1921].


TOPICAL

And yet, for all his laments, [V. S.] Naipaul is not invested
in the notion that Western civilization is in decline. "That's
a romantic idea," he said brusquely. "A civilization which has
taken over the world cannot be said to be dying. . . . It's a
university idea. People cook it up at universities and do a
lot of lectures about it. It has no substance." The
"philosophical diffidence" of the West, he maintains,
will prevail over the "philosophical shriek" of those who
intend to destroy it.
--"The Irascible Prophet: V. S. Naipaul at Home",
_The New York Times_, [7 August 2005]
V.S. Naipaul (1932- )
Trinidadian novelist and travel writer.

-----

anomie or anomy (noun)
1: a breakdown or lack of values, norms, or structure in a society.
2: the alienated feeling of an individual or class resulting from such
a breakdown.
Derived: anomic (adj.)



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CIVIL RIGHTS

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see: "LYNCHING"
see "FREEDOM" for other related links


They [the makers of the Constitution] conferred,
as against the government, the right to be let
alone — the most comprehensive of rights and
the right most valued by civilized men.
--Louis Brandeis (1856—1941)
American lawyer and associate justice of
the U.S. Supreme Court [1916—1939].
In a dissenting Supreme Court opinion
"Olnstead v. United States" [1928].

Black power!
--Stokely Carmichael (1941—1998)
American civil-rights activist.
Remarks at rally [16 June 1966].

If the is any principle of the Constitution
that more imperatively calls for attachment
than any other it is the principle of free
thought — not free thought for those who
agree with us but freedom for the thought
that we hate.
--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841—1935)
Justice of the United States Supreme Court,
legal historian, and philosopher.
In a dissenting Supreme Court opinion
"United States v. Schwimmer" [1929].

Freedom is not enough. You do not wipe away the
scars of centuries by saying: Now you are free to
go where you want, and do as you desire, and
choose the leaders you please. You do not take
a person who for years has been hobbled by chains
and liberate him, bring him to the starting line
of a race and then say, "you are free to compete
with all the others," and still justly believe that
you have been completely fair. Thus it is not enough
just to open the gates of opportunity. All citizens
must have the ability to walk through these gates.
This is the next and most profound stage of the battle
for civil rights. We seek not just legal equity but
human stability, not just equality as a right and
a theory but equality as a fact and equality as
a result.
--Lyndon B. Johnson (1908—1973)
American Democratic statesman, President [1963—1969].

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I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia,
sons of former slaves and sons of former slave-owners
will be able to sit down together at the table of
brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day, even the state of Mississippi,
a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering
with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an
oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream my four little children will one day live
in a nation where they will not be judged by the color
of their skin but by the content of their character. I
have a dream today!

--Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929—1968)
American civil rights leader.
Keynote address at the Civil Rights March at the
Lincoln Memorial, Washington [28 August 1963].


From every mountainside, let freedom ring. And when this happens,
and when we allow freedom to ring, and when we let it ring from
every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city,
we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children,
black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and
Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the
old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty,
we are free at last!
--Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929—1968)
American civil rights leader.
Speech at Civil Rights March, Washington, D.C. [28 August 1963].

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I had no idea when I refused to give up my seat on
that Montgomery bus that my small action would help
put an end to the segregation laws in the south. I
only knew I was tired of being pushed around. I was
a regular person, just as good as anybody else. There
had been a few times in my life when I was treated by
white people like a regular person, so I knew what that
felt like. It was time. It was time that other white people
started treating me that way.
--Rosa Parks (1913—2005)
Figure in the American civil rights movement.
_Rosa Parks: My Story_ [1992]


[On her refusal to give up her seat to a white man:]
All I was doing was trying to get home from work.
--Rosa Parks (1913—2005)
Figure in the American civil rights movement.
Quoted in "Time" [15 December 1975].

-

In one generation we have moved from denying a black
man service at a lunch counter to elevating one to
the highest military office in the nation, and to
being a serious contender for the presidency. This
is a magnificent country and I am proud to be one
of its sons.
--Colin L. Powell (1937— )
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff [1989—1993]
and Secretary of State [2001—2005].
At a news conference in Alexandria, VA, where he
announced his decision not to seek the presidential
nomination [8 November 1995].


end page



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