"Civility costs nothing, and buys everything"
About this Quote
“Civility costs nothing, and buys everything” is a marketer’s line disguised as a moral maxim, and that’s precisely why it lands. Montagu frames politeness as a near-effortless investment with extravagant returns: status, access, safety, influence. The phrase “costs nothing” is a strategic understatement. Civility does cost something - pride, candor, the pleasure of being openly contemptuous - but Montagu’s sleight of hand makes it feel like free money, a small social courtesy that magically multiplies into power.
The verb “buys” is the tell. This isn’t civility as inner virtue; it’s civility as social currency. Montagu lived in an era when reputations were traded like property and a woman’s mobility depended on the tightrope of public perception. In that world, manners weren’t decorative; they were infrastructure. Civility could keep doors open, dull gossip’s blade, and grant a voice in rooms built to deny it. Montagu, a sharp observer of court politics and a veteran of social warfare, understood that the softest behavior can be the hardest strategy.
The subtext is quietly unsentimental: you don’t have to like people to treat them well, and you don’t have to be powerful to act in ways that generate power. Read now, the line doubles as an indictment of our performative outrage economy. Civility isn’t surrender; it’s leverage. Montagu’s point isn’t that niceness saves the world. It’s that, in a world run on friction, good manners are the cheapest tool for getting what you want.
The verb “buys” is the tell. This isn’t civility as inner virtue; it’s civility as social currency. Montagu lived in an era when reputations were traded like property and a woman’s mobility depended on the tightrope of public perception. In that world, manners weren’t decorative; they were infrastructure. Civility could keep doors open, dull gossip’s blade, and grant a voice in rooms built to deny it. Montagu, a sharp observer of court politics and a veteran of social warfare, understood that the softest behavior can be the hardest strategy.
The subtext is quietly unsentimental: you don’t have to like people to treat them well, and you don’t have to be powerful to act in ways that generate power. Read now, the line doubles as an indictment of our performative outrage economy. Civility isn’t surrender; it’s leverage. Montagu’s point isn’t that niceness saves the world. It’s that, in a world run on friction, good manners are the cheapest tool for getting what you want.
Quote Details
| Topic | Respect |
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