“Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.”

—  Isaac Newton

Actually a statement by American advertising executive and author Howard W. Newton (1903–1951); attributions to Isaac are relatively recent, those to Howard date at least to Sylva Vol. 1-3 (1945), p. 57 https://books.google.com/books?id=-QUcAQAAMAAJ&amp;q=%22Tact+is+the+knack+of+making+a+point+without+making+an+enemy%22&amp;dq=%22Tact+is+the+knack+of+making+a+point+without+making+an+enemy%22&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=jtmwVJrZN43ksATPmID4BA&amp;ved=0CNkBEOgBMCQ, where it is cited to an earlier publication in Redbook. <br class="br">Misattributed <br class="br">Variant: Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy. <br class="br">Variant: Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 1, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy." by Isaac Newton?
Isaac Newton photo
Isaac Newton171
British physicist and mathematician and founder of modern c… 1643–1727

Related quotes

Arthur Helps photo

“There is nothing so easily made offensive as good reasoning; and men of clear logical minds, if not gifted at the same time with tact, make more enemies than men with bad hearts and unsound understandings.”

Arthur Helps (1813–1875) British writer

Source: Brevia: Short Essays and Aphorisms. (1871), p. 114

Craig Ferguson photo

“She still cared for me, and the best way I could make amends to her was to be happy.

I do have a knack for finding great women.”

Craig Ferguson (1962) Scottish-born American television host, stand-up comedian, writer, actor, director, author, producer and voice a…

Source: American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot

Eric Jerome Dickey photo

“common enemies make enemies become friends!”

Eric Jerome Dickey (1961) American author

Resurrecting Midnight

Hiro Mashima photo

“Are we prepared to make an enemy out of the Kingdom? The question is, are you bastards prepared to make an enemy out of Fairy Tail?”

Hiro Mashima (1977) Japanese manga artist

Miyamoto Musashi photo

“In large-scale strategy you can frighten the enemy not by what you present to their eyes, but by shouting, making a small force seem large, or by threatening them from the flank without warning. These things all frighten. You can win by making best use of the enemy's frightened rhythm.”

Miyamoto Musashi (1584–1645) Japanese martial artist, writer, artist

Go Rin No Sho (1645), The Fire Book

Diana Gabaldon photo

“Highlanders make the truest friends-if only because they make the worst enemies.”

Diana Gabaldon book A Breath of Snow and Ashes

Source: A Breath of Snow and Ashes

Pythagoras photo

“We ought so to behave to one another as to avoid making enemies of our friends, and at the same time to make friends of our enemies.”

Pythagoras (-585–-495 BC) ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher

As quoted in Diogenes Laërtius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, &quot;Pythagoras&quot;, Sect. 23, as translated in Dictionary of Quotations http://archive.org/details/dictionaryquota02harbgoog (1906) by Thomas Benfield Harbottle, p. 320

“Instead of making a genuine point, it's now good enough to repeat any ribald story without a thought for whether it's even true.”

Lindsey Davis book Last Act in Palmyra

Last Act in Palmyra
Context: The new "humour", if you can call it that, is pure malicious gossip. Instead of making a genuine point, it's now good enough to repeat any ribald story without a thought for whether it's even true.

Seneca the Younger photo

“A trifling debt makes a man your debtor; a large one makes him an enemy.”
Leve aes alienum debitorem facit, grave inimicum.

Seneca the Younger (-4–65 BC) Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist

Source: Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter XIX: On worldliness and retirement, Line 11.

Gertrude Stein photo

“The idea of enemies is awful it makes one stop remembering eternity and the fear of death. That is what enemies are. Possessions are the same as enemies only less so, they too make one forget eternity and the fear of death.”

Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American art collector and experimental writer of novels, poetry and plays

Wars I Have Seen (1945)

Related topics