Daily Inspiration Quote by William Gilmore Simms

Politeness, Simms implies, isn’t a set of social tricks but a moral instrument: it begins where your attention leaves yourself. By calling consideration the only true source, he quietly demotes etiquette to what it often is - a costume that can be worn over indifference. The line works because it draws a hard boundary between manners as performance and manners as perception. If you’re considerate, you will likely sound polite; if you’re merely polite, you may be doing nothing but managing impressions.

The subtext is sharper than it looks. “Politeness” can be a currency in unequal societies, a way to signal refinement, draw class lines, or soften the edge of power. Simms, a 19th-century Southern novelist steeped in codes of honor and social rank, would have known how easily courtesy can be weaponized: a sweet tone that hides contempt, a well-mannered dismissal that keeps someone “in their place.” By grounding politeness in consideration, he tries to relocate it from status to empathy, from ritual to relationship.

There’s also an implicit critique of the era’s obsession with propriety. In a world of calling cards, parlor rules, and reputations built on surface calm, Simms suggests a test that can’t be faked for long: do your actions account for other people’s comfort, dignity, and time? The sentence is spare, almost puritanical, which is part of its force. It refuses to let politeness be decorative. It insists it be consequential.