Civil

Famous quotes containing the word civil:

    Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer,
    And, without sneering, teach the rest to sneer;
    Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike,
    Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike;
    Alike reserved to blame, or to commend,
    A timorous foe, and a suspicious friend;
    Dreading e’en fools, by flatterers besieged,
    And so obliging, that he ne’er obliged;
    Like Cato, give his little senate laws,
    And sit attentive to his own applause:
    Alexander Pope (1688–1744)

    Standards of conduct appropriate to civil society or the workings of a democracy cannot be purely and simply applied to the Church.
    Joseph Ratzinger (b. 1927)

    The New Year is the season in which custom seems more particularly to authorize civil and harmless lies, under the name of compliments. People reciprocally profess wishes which they seldom form and concern which they seldom feel.
    Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)