Life & Wisdom Quote by Bryant H. McGill

The line lands like a social slap because it treats rudeness as more than a minor flaw; it’s a character indictment. McGill isn’t complaining about bad manners the way an etiquette columnist might. He’s drawing a boundary around what “basic courtesy” represents: the minimum proof that you recognize other people as real. When that recognition is missing, the offender becomes “insufferable” not simply because they’re unpleasant, but because they force everyone else to do emotional labor just to keep the room livable.

The word choice matters. “No one” is absolutist, a deliberately sweeping claim that reads less like measured philosophy and more like a moral red line. “Basic” is doing a lot of work: he’s not demanding refinement, charisma, or perfect politeness. He’s naming the baseline behaviors that make shared spaces function - listening, not humiliating, not acting entitled to other people’s time. By setting the bar low, the quote makes the failure feel willful. You don’t “forget” basic courtesy; you opt out of it.

There’s also a quiet power move in calling discourtesy “insufferable.” It legitimizes refusal: you don’t have to tolerate the person who won’t offer the minimum. Contextually, McGill’s self-help/aphoristic voice fits a culture increasingly exhausted by public incivility - from customer-service meltdowns to online cruelty. The subtext is a demand for accountability in everyday interactions, where the cost of someone’s “just being honest” is usually paid by everyone else.