“It is wise to apply the oil of refined politeness to the mechanisms of friendship.”

—  Colette

Source: Le Pur et l'Impur (The Pure and the Impure) (1932), Ch. 9

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "It is wise to apply the oil of refined politeness to the mechanisms of friendship." by Colette?
Colette photo
Colette 59
1873-1954 French novelist: wrote Gigi 1873–1954

Related quotes

Frank Delaney photo

“Do you know what the difference is between Friendship and Love? Friendship is the photograph, Love is the oil painting.”

Frank Delaney (1942–2017) Irish writer and journalist

Source: The Matchmaker of Kenmare

Benjamin Graham photo

“The Reservoir plan is an engineering mechanism applied to the field of economics, and in its essence it has nothing to do with democracy or any other political philosophy.”

Benjamin Graham (1894–1976) American investor

Part V, Chapter XIX, The Reservoir Plan and Tradition, p. 232
Storage and Stability (1937)

Democritus photo

“The friendship of one wise man is better than the friendship of a host of fools.”

Democritus Ancient Greek philosopher, pupil of Leucippus, founder of the atomic theory

Source Book in Ancient Philosophy (1907), The Golden Sayings of Democritus

John D. Rockefeller photo

“We must ever remember we are refining oil for the poor man and he must have it cheap and good.”

John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937) American business magnate and philanthropist
Marshall McLuhan photo

“Typography as the first mechanization of a handicraft is itself the perfect instance not of a new knowledge, but of applied knowledge.”

Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor of English literature, a literary critic, and a …

Source: 1960s, The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), p. 171

Greg Behrendt photo

“An excuse is a polite rejection. Men are not afraid of 'ruining the friendship.”

Greg Behrendt (1963) American comedian

Source: He's Just Not That Into You: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys

“The mind of a wise man is the safest custody of secrets; cheerfulness is the key to friendship; patience and forbearance will conceal many defects.”

Ali book Nahj al-Balagha

Nahj al-Balagha

Ivan Illich photo

“I do not believe that friendship today can flower out — can come out — of political life. I do believe that if there is something like a political life to be — to remain for us, in this world of technology — then it begins with friendship.”

Ivan Illich (1926–2002) austrian philosopher and theologist

We the People interview (1996)
Context: I do not believe that friendship today can flower out — can come out — of political life. I do believe that if there is something like a political life to be — to remain for us, in this world of technology — then it begins with friendship.
Therefore my task is to cultivate disciplined, self-denying, careful, tasteful friendships. Mutual friendships always. I-and-you and, I hope, a third one, out of which perhaps community can grow. Because perhaps here we can find what the good is.

Willis Lamb photo

“I liked quantum mechanics very much. The subject was hard to understand but easy to apply to a large number of interesting problems.”

Willis Lamb (1913–2008) American Physicist

W. E. Lamb, Super classical quantum mechanics: the best interpretation of non relativistic quantum mechanics, Am. J. Phys. 69, 413-422 (2001).

“I will show how a model might be applied to social control, and then more specifically focus on religions as mechanisms of social control.”

Bertram Raven (1926) American psychologist

Source: "Influence, Power, Religion, and the Mechanisms of Social Control," 1999, p. 161 Lead sentence

Related topics