“Keeping away from others to avoid getting hurt just won’t do. Our challenge is to pursue relationships while keeping at a minimum the hurt that they entail. How can we do that? …

“There is a proven way to keep the hurt that comes from relationships to a minimum, and that is by training ourselves to become good at being with others. How to acquire this invaluable behavioral literacy is not a mystery. A training in civility is part of our basic training as social beings. Civility is the preventive medicine we need.”

Choosing Civility: The Twenty-Five Rules of Considerate Conduct by P.M. Forni (St. Martin’s Press, 2002); pp.18-19