Incivility Quotes

• It is a wise thing to be polite; consequently, it is a stupid thing to be rude. To make enemies by unnecessary and willful incivility, is just as insane a proceeding as to set your house on fire. For politeness is like a counter--an avowedly false coin, with which it is foolish to be stingy.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Wise, Stupid, Fire

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2012). “Collected Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer”, p.58, Simon and Schuster

  68 Copy quote

  Show source

• Incivility is not a Vice of the Soul, but the effect of several Vices; of Vanity, Ignorance of Duty, Laziness, Stupidity, Distraction, Contempt of others, and Jealousy.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Ignorance, Character, Vanity

  "The Characters or Manners of the Present Age". Book by Jean de la Bruyere, Volume II, Chapter XI, 1688.

  37 Copy quote

  Show source

• Incivility is the extreme of pride; it is built on the contempt of mankind.

  John G. Zimmerman

  Pride, Disrespect, Mankind

  23 Copy quote

• Civility costs nothing, and buys everything.

  Mary Wortley Montagu

  Cost, Behaviour, Civility

  Letter to her daughter Mary, Countess of Bute, 30 May 1756, in Robert Halsband (ed.) 'The Complete Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu' vol. 3 (1967) p. 107

  97 Copy quote

  Show source

• If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination.

  Thomas de Quincey

  Death, Drinking, Procrastination

  "On Murder, Considered as One of the Fine Arts" (1839)

  27 Copy quote

  Show source

• Could there be finer symptoms? Is not general incivility the very essence of love?

  Jane Austen

  Essence, Prejudice, Symptoms

  Jane Austen (2008). “Pride and Prejudice”, p.194, Waking Lion Press

  23 Copy quote

  Show source

• Only once in my life was I on the edge of incivility. I do not like to be unkind.

  David Rockefeller

  Disrespect, Edges, Unkind

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  24 Copy quote

  Show source

• Scurrility has no object in view but incivility; if it is uttered from feelings of petulance, it is mere abuse; if it is spoken in a joking manner, it may be considered raillery.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Views, Feelings, Abuse

  20 Copy quote

• Good rule to follow: never reward someone's incivility by giving them the headline they seek.

  Joe Scarborough

  Giving, Rewards, Headlines

  Twitter post from Nov 29, 2011

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• Incivility is a symptom, not the disease. We've always had partisan conflict in Congress, and we always will. Yet when I worked for a year (1970-71) on the staff of Sen. Ed Muskie of Maine, this was a different place, more collegial, more sensitive to data, more concerned about all of the American people. I think because the for-profit media prizes conflict above cooperation and sound bites above analysis, politicians have learned to adapt to those tendencies. Consequently, our public debates are dumbed down as our problems grow more complex.

  Tom Allen

  Thinking, Data, Media

  9 Copy quote

• Suicides pay the world a bad compliment. Indeed, it may so happen that the world has been beforehand with them in incivility. Granted. Even then the retaliation is at their own expense.

  Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann

  Suicide, World, May

  8 Copy quote

• Im accustomed to Internet forums where rudeness and incivility are the rule, where too many people seem to take pride in their insults.

  Bryan Burrough

  Pride, People, Insult

  4 Copy quote

• Wisdom and virtue are by no means sufficient, without the supplemental laws of good-breeding, to secure freedom from degenerating into rudeness, or self esteem from swelling into insolence. A thousand incivilities may be committed, and a thousand offices neglected. without any remorse of conscience, or reproach from reason.

  Samuel Johnson

  Self Esteem, Mean, Law

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1825). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With Murphy's Essay”, p.459

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• While I deplored and denounced the incivilities of Quakerism in my day (such as the going naked in public by some at sundry times), my position regarding their religious views was, "They will answer to God, at their own peril, in the great day approaching [that is, the day of divine judgment]."

  Roger Williams

  Religious, Views, Great Day

  Source: www.libertymagazine.org

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• It's the rising tide of enmity in the country, Donald Trump attacking judges, Donald Trump attacking John McCain, Senator [Richard] Blumenthal, the town halls, the riots in Berkeley. You have got the incivility on the floor of the United States Senate. You have got just a rising tide, every single story.

  David Brooks

  Country, Judging, United States

  Source: www.realclearpolitics.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source