Return
Home
The
Credits
The
Cast
Act
1
Act
2
Act
3
The
Reviews
     
 
CIVILITY --- CIVILIZATION
CIVIL RIGHTS

.
.
.

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.
--usually attributed to either Jimmy Durante [James Francis
Durante] (1893—1980), American comedian, or Wilson
Mizner (1876—1933), American playwright.

The music that can deepest reach,
And cure all ill, is cordial speech.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.
"Considerations by the Way" in _The Conduct of Life_ [1860].

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.
Quoted in _The Prefaces, Proverbs, and Poems of Benjamin Franklin_ [1889].

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.
_Time Enough for Love_ [1973] "Notebooks of Lazarus Long"

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]

Talking is one of the fine arts — the noblest, the
most important, the most difficult — and its fluent
harmonies may be spoiled by the intrusion of a
single harsh note.
--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809—1894)
American physician, poet, and essayist.
_The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table_ [1858]

-

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.
In "The Rambler" (English journal), #50 [8 September 1750].


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.
In "The Rambler" (English journal), #55 [25 September 1750].

-

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.
--attributed to Karl Lembke

If a civil word or two will render a man happy,
he must be a wretch indeed who will not give
them to him.
--Louis XIV (1638—1715)
King of France (1643—1715)
Quoted in William Seward _Anecdotes of Distinguished Persons_ [vol. IV, 5th ed., 1804].

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.
Attributed in American Unitarian Association
_Day Unto Day_ [5th ed. 1873].

That character in conversation which commonly passes
for agreeable is made up of civility and falsehood.
--Alexander Pope (1688—1744)
English poet.
_Thoughts on Various Subjects_ [1727]

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.
_Americans and Others_ [1912] " A Question of Politeness"

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.



Click picture to ZOOM
CIVILIZATION

.
.

see: "RULES"
see: "THE HUMAN RACE" for other 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.
Speech to the Adelphi Society, Liamstown College [August 1835].

New York makes one think of the collapse of civilization, about Sodom and
Gomorrah, the end of the world. The end wouldn't come as a surprise here.
Many people already bank on it.
--Saul Bellow (1915—2005)
Canadian-born American novelist.
_Mr. Sammler's Planet_, pt. 6 [1970]

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]

-

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]


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.
_The Unquiet Grave_ [1944]

-

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]

-

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 Herbert Prochnow
_The Complete Toastmaster: A New Treasury for Speakers_ [1960].


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]

-

[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.
Attributed in "Reader's Digest" [1967].

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.
_The Clash of Civilizations_, pp.82-3 [1996]

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 1816].

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" in _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 (b. 1916)
British-born American professor and Middle-Eastern scholar.
"The Roots of Muslim Rage" in _Atlantic Monthly_ [September 1990].

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 the Virtue of Scientific Humility", ch. 12 in _On Aggression_ [1963].

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.
"What I Believe" in Henry Goddard Leach (ed.)
_Forum and Century, vol. 84 [1930].

[T]here 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.
"Christianity and Crisis" (Journal pub. 1941-1993) [10 February 1941]

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 (b. 1947)
American political satirist.
_Give War A Chance_ [1992]

If civilization had been left in female hands,
we would still be living in grass huts.
--Camille Paglia (b. 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.
Quoted in Benjamin Hart
_Faith & Freedom: The Christian Roots of American Liberty_ [1988].

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)
American plant pathologist and educator.
Quoted in "Technocracy Digest" [1950].

Civilizations die from suicide, not murder.
--attributed to Arnold Toynbee (1889—1975)
English historian.

-

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 the Agriculture of England at the
Boston, Mass. State House [13 January 1840].

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].
"The Road Away From Revolution" in _The Atlantic Monthly_ [August 1923].

-----

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.)



Click picture to ZOOM
CIVIL RIGHTS

.
.

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 justly believe that
you have been completely fair. Thus it is not enough
just to open the gates of opportunity. All our citizens
must have the ability to walk through these gates.
--Lyndon B. Johnson (1908—1973)
American Democratic statesman, President [1963—1969].
Commencement Address at Howard University, Washington, D.C. [4 June 1965].

-

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].

-

-

[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].


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]

-

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 (b. 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



| CALAMITIES - CALM | CALUMNY - CANADA | CANCER - CAPITAL PUNISHMENT | CAPITALISM | CAREFREE - CARPE DIEM | CARTER (JIMMY) - CATS & DOGS | CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES - CENSORSHIP | CERTAINTY - CHANGE | CHANGING (ONE'S MIND) & CHANGING TIMES | CHARACTER | CHARACTER ASSASINATION - CHEERFULNESS | CHEER UP! - CHILDHOOD | CHILDREN | CHILDREN'S RHYME | CHINA | CHOCOLATE - CHRISTIANITY | CHRISTMAS | CHURCH - CIGARS | CIRCUMSTANCES & CITIES | CIVILITY - CIVIL RIGHTS | CLARITY - CLEVER | CLOTHES - COFFEE | COLD - COLORS | COMEDY | COMFORT - COMMON SENSE | COMMUNICATION | COMMUNISM | COMPANIONSHIP - COMPASSION | COMPETITION - COMPLIMENTS | COMPOSERS - CONDUCTORS | CONFESSION - CONQUEST | CONSCIENCE - CONTENTED | CONTEXT - CONVERSATION | CONVICTION & COOKING | COOLIDGE - CORPORATIONS | CORRUPTION - COURAGE | COURT - COWS | CREATIVITY - CRIME | CRIME & PUNISHMENT - CROOKS | CRITICISM & CRITICS | CROWD (THE) - CUBA | CULTURE - CYNICS |
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G |
| Return Home | The Credits | The Cast | Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3 | The Reviews |
 
     



Copyright © 2012, someworthwhilequotes.com. All rights reserved.