“What is civility? What does it mean to be civil today, at the beginning of the twenty-first century? Is civility in decline? How do we make it part pf who we are? What are civility’s basic rules? How does civility improve the quality of our lives? How do we practice among friends, in the workplace, and among strangers? Does it have drawbacks? Are we supposed to be always civil? How do we deal with the uncivil? Answering these questions is what this book is about.”

Choosing Civility: The Twenty-Five Rules of Considerate Conduct by P.M. Forni (St. Martin’s Press, 2002); p. xi