This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
There is not a single outward mark of courtesy that does not have a deep moral basis.
Francis Walsingham, fully Sir Francis Walsingham
Every virtue gives a man a degree of felicity in some kind: honesty gives a man a good report; justice, estimation; prudence, respect; courtesy and liberality, affection; temperance gives health; fortitude, a quiet mind, not to be moved by any adversity.
Adversity | Character | Courtesy | Estimation | Fortitude | Good | Health | Honesty | Justice | Man | Mind | Prudence | Prudence | Quiet | Respect | Virtue | Virtue |
There is no outward sign of courtesy that does not rest on a deep moral foundation.
We may scatter the seeds of courtesy and kindness about us at little expense. Some of them will fall on good ground, and grow up into benevolence in the minds of others, and all of them will bear fruit of happiness in the bosom whence they spring. Once blest are all the virtues; twice blest, sometimes.
Benevolence | Courtesy | Good | Kindness | Little | Will | Happiness |
Miserable indeed is a world in which we have knowledge without understanding, criticism without appreciation, beauty without love, truth without passion, righteousness without mercy, and courtesy without a warm heart!
Appreciation | Beauty | Courtesy | Criticism | Heart | Knowledge | Love | Mercy | Passion | Righteousness | Truth | Understanding | World | Beauty |
Mencius, born Meng Ke or Ko NULL
No person is without sense of compassion, or a sense of shame, or a sense of courtesy, or a sense of right and wrong. The sense of compassion is the beginning of humanity; the sense of shame is the beginning of righteousness; the sense of courtesy is the beginning of decorum [li]; the sense of right and wrong is the beginning of wisdom. Every person has within him these four beginnings; just as he has four limbs.
Beginning | Compassion | Courtesy | Humanity | Right | Righteousness | Sense | Shame | Wisdom | Wrong |
Don't flatter yourself that friendship authorizes you to say disagreeable things to your intimates. The nearer you come in relation with a person, the more necessary tact and courtesy become.
Courtesy | Tact | Friendship |
Let not the emphasis of hospitality lie in bed and board; but let truth and love and honor and courtesy flow in all thy deeds.
He who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love.
Saint Basil, aka Basil of Caesarea, Saint Basil the Great NULL
He who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love.
Fran Lebowitz, fully Frances Ann "Fran" Lebowitz
I place a high moral value on the way people behave. I find it repellent to have a lot, and to behave with anything other than courtesy in the old sense of the word - politeness of the heart, a gentleness of the spirit.
Courtesy | Gentleness | People | Sense | Politeness | Old | Value |
Don't flatter yourself that friendship authorizes you to say disagreeable things to your intimates. The nearer you come into relation with a person, the more necessary do tact and courtesy become.
Courtesy | Tact | Friendship |