Civility is not a tactic or a sentiment. It is the determined choice of trust over cynicism, of community over chaos. And this commitment, if we keep it, is a way to shared accomplishment.
In one aspectcivilization is thehabit of civility; and civility is the refinement which townsmen, who made the word, thought possible only in the civitas or city.
Will Durant,The Story of Civilization, Chap. 1, p. 2
Disobedience without civility, discipline, discrimination, non-violence, is certain destruction. Disobedience combined with love is the living water of life.Civil disobedience is a beautiful variant to signifygrowth, it is not discordance which spellsdeath.
A winning wave, deserving note, In the tempestuous petticoat: A careless shoe-string, in whose tie I see a wild civility: Do more bewitch me than when art Is too precise in every part.
There is so great a need for civility and mutual respect among those of differing beliefs and philosophies. We must not be partisans of any doctrine of ethnic superiority. We live in a world of diversity. We can and must be respectful toward those with whose teachings we may not agree. We must be willing to defend the rights of others who may become the victims of bigotry.
Gordon B. Hinckley, First talk as President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, April 3,1995.
Civility is not a sign ofweakness, andsincerity is always subject toproof. Let us never negotiate out offear. But let us never fear to negotiate.
I hold to the idea that civility, understood as the willingness to engage in public discourse, is the first virtue of citizens.
Mark Kingwell,The World We Want, Preface, p. viii. (2000)
TheIndians, whom we call barbarous, observe much moredecency and civility in their discourses and conversation, giving one another a fair silent hearing till they have quite done; and then answering them calmly, and without noise or passion. And if it be not so in this civiliz'd part of the world, we must impute it to a neglect in education, which has not yet reform'd this antient piece of barbarity amongst us.
The demand for more civility in politics today should be directed toward improving the quality of our insults, seeking civility in wit rather than blandness.
A good many of you are probably acquainted with the old proverb, "Speak softly and carry a big stick — you will go far." 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 … So it is with the nation. It is both foolish and undignified to indulge in undue self-glorification, and, above all, in loose-tongued denunciation of other peoples.
Theodore Roosevelt, speech at Minnesota State Fair, as it appeared in theMinneapolis Tribune (3 September 1901)
I intend to help give voice to my fellow citizens who believe, as I do, that we must return to an era of civility ingovernment driven by a common purpose to fulfill the promise that is unique to America.
Theoretical liberties, however, we are too often assured at the expense of actual civilities, and as civilities were lost, litigation emerged as a way of life with a consequent reduction inreal liberties for all persons except lawyers, who, like mercenaries, are profiteers of discord. Persons were actually allowed, by law, under the guise of free expression, to shout into the faces of those who held differing opinions and to intrude upon their privacy. Liberty has two legs. Vigilance is certainly one, but civility is as certainly the other.
