Courtesy
Courtesy comes from old French 'courteis' (12th century) and is gentle politeness and courtly manners. In the Middle Ages in Europe, the behaviour expected of the gentry was compiled in courtesy books. One of the most influential of these was Il Cortegiano (The Courtier) which not only covered basic etiquette and decorum but also provided models of sophisticated conversation and intellectual skill.
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Famous quotes containing the word courtesy:
“I find nothing healthful or exalting in the smooth conventions of society. I do not like the close air of saloons. I begin to suspect myself to be a prisoner, though treated with all this courtesy and luxury. I pay a destructive tax in my conformity.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“When a language creates—as it does—a community within the present, it does so only by courtesy of a community between the present and the past.”
—Christopher Ricks (b. 1933)
“I have very poor and unhappy brains for drinking. I could well wish courtesy would invent some other custom of entertainment.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)