Top 44 Civility Quotes

The civility which money will purchase, is rarely extended to those who have none.

While it’s true that Washington would benefit from more civility, the Senate, behind the scenes, is an extraordinarily collegial institution.

I believe in civility, inclusion and diversity. I believe that everybody can contribute. I don’t believe in labelling and stereotypes. These things are the antithesis of what I believe in and go against everything I love in America. And I do love America.

I think almost every writer in the world would hope that books would be always talked about with respect and civility and depth and seriousness.

I grew up in airports and on air bases. I know what flying and airports can be. And most airports make me feel like we’re about three per cent better than ants. Especially U.S. airports. They’re zoos. All civility is gone.

I’m very concerned about the tone of politics in recent years. We’ve seen a decline in civility and bipartisanship, and a rapid increase in hostility between those who have differing opinions. I think this has led to the alienation of the public in governance, which jeopardizes democratic participation.

There is a certain ancient civility about tailors that is welcome – especially in modern London, which is now very much an international city, not an English city. They’re still a little vessel of Englishness in what is otherwise a pretty rambunctious place.

All of civility depends on being able to contain the rage of individuals.

It’s too much to expect in an academic setting that we should all agree, but it is not too much to expect discipline and unvarying civility.

I’m attracted to polarizing characters who upend the civility of life.

I think the country’s getting disgusted with Washington partly because of the decline of civility in government.

We need sobriety, rationality, and civility in the discussions on the regulation of financial institutions so that the banks can return in a robust manner to their central role in funding the economy.

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.

I will attack ideas very hard. I am not shy about that one bit. So I don’t want people to think that because I had a call for civility that that means I shy away from debate and that I’m agreeable. That’s not the case. What is the case is that I will not question who you are as a person.

I see good ideas on the Republican side as well as the Democratic side. You have to return civility and statesmanship to governance. If you don’t do that, it doesn’t matter what portfolio of issue you’re pushing, nothing is going to get done.

Natural disasters are terrifying – that loss of control, this feeling that something is just going to randomly end your life for absolutely no reason is terrifying. But, what scares me is the human reaction to it and how people behave when the rules of civility and society are obliterated.

I think making a pretense of civility toward Eric Alterman is like making a pretense of civility to a scorpion.

Civility, politeness, it’s like a cement in a society: binds it together. And when we lose it, then I think we all feel lesser and slightly dirty because of it.

When I sat down to write ‘Rules of Civility,’ I didn’t write it for anybody but myself. I wasn’t trying to make my mark or make money. I wasn’t anxious about feeding my kids or whether my father would be proud of me.

The truth is that the gossip-hounds in Tinsel Town and the cackling windbags at ‘The View’ don’t want civility. They want catty (or dare I say it gay-ish) gossip and sensational headlines that provide them with an opportunity to hop on the bully pulpit.

Civility is not simply about manners.

Larry King’s show got to be an increasingly lonely outpost of humane civility in a mephitic menagerie of hotheads, saber rattlers, cretins and crackpots.

My hope is that we would begin to have a dialogue in this country about the importance of civility. We can have strong differences, but it does seem to me that most of the country believes it’s gone to critical mass in what I would call the professional class across the political spectrum – left and right.

Wine to me is something that brings people together. Wine does promote conversation and promote civility, but it’s also fascinating. It’s the greatest subject to study. No matter how much you learn, every vintage is going to come at you with different factors that make you have to think again.

Civility is not about dousing strongly held views. It’s about making sure that people are willing to respect other perspectives.

Politeness and civility are the best capital ever invested in business. Large stores, gilt signs, flaming advertisements, will all prove unavailing if you or your employees treat your patrons abruptly. The truth is, the more kind and liberal a man is, the more generous will be the patronage bestowed upon him.

There should be some civility when it comes to being president of the United States.

We are losing sight of civility in government and politics. Debate and dialogue is taking a back seat to the politics of destruction and anger and control. Dogma has replaced thoughtful discussion between people of differing views.

‘Playboy’ operated with a patina of civility that granted the average man a presumption of pleasure that went one way – his. And that permission flourished in the psyches of all kinds of men.

Martha Stewart contributes more to our civility than the Baptist church.

While Obama, the olive-branch poseur, has called for a restoration of ‘civility’ in Washington and liberal elites whine and whinny about the need for ‘no labels,’ class-warfare demagoguery has metastasized unchecked.

Donald Trump’s election was a watershed moment. Even those like me, who had previously pulled levers for candidates of both parties, felt that Mr. Trump had not only violated all sense of common decency, but, alarmingly, that he seemed to have no idea that there even existed such an unspoken code of civility and dignity.

While the scars of the monstrous Civil War still remain, the wounds have closed since 1865, in large part, because of the civility of Grant and Lee.

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.

Panic is rare, looting is essentially insignificant, people are not terrified and trampling each other to flee from a disaster scene, but in fact are trying to manage a situation. We may in fact revert to some sort of primordial civility.

Virginians deserve civility.

Divorce is not easy, but if you genuinely put your kids first, that dictates the civility you should show each other. What example are you otherwise?

Some of us love hockey not just for its ferocity and skill but for its underlying code of civility off the ice.

I don’t think it is just in the world of politics. The lack of civility in society as a whole, some of it, I believe, is very much fueled by social media and frankly, it’s fueled by the fact that journalism is not journalism any more.

Treating people fairly and with civility is not a bad thing… It would be good for our country if political leaders actually took that to heart.

I think civility is important to getting things done.

There are no points for civility or decency when it comes to prosecuting the campaign against Donald Trump.

I come from a profession which has suffered greatly because of the lack of civility. Lawyers treat each other poorly and it has come home to haunt them. The public will not tolerate a lack of civility.

The language has changed. When I grew up and watched the campaigns of John Kennedy, even with Richard Nixon, there was a lot higher level of civility. Now we describe a disagreement as an attack.