He was so generally civil, that nobody thanked him for it.
Interpretation
A person's kindness may go unnoticed if it is too common or expected.
This quote by Samuel Johnson highlights the paradox of civility and politeness; when someone is consistently civil or kind, their efforts may become so normalized that they no longer receive gratitude or acknowledgment. It underscores the importance of appreciating everyday kindness, which can often be taken for granted in social interactions.
In practice
A speech about community service where you mention how acts of kindness often go unthanked.
To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example.
He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.
To let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to throw away one of the greatest comforts of the weary pilgrimage.
Fly-fishing may be a very pleasant amusement; but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.
When any anxiety or gloom of the mind takes hold of you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaining; but exert yourselves to hide it, and by endeavoring to hide it you drive it away.
A fishing rod is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other.
She is probably by this time as tired of me, as I am of her; but as she is too Polite and I am too civil to say so, our letters are still as frequent and affectionate as ever, and our Attachment as firm and sincere as when it first commenced.
The so-called right to abortion has pitted mothers against their children and women against men. It has sown violence and discord at the heart of the most intimate human relationships. It has aggravated the derogation of the father's role in an increasingly fatherless society. It has portrayed the greatest of gifts--a child--as a competitor, an intrusion and an inconvenience.. .
The less you demand total fulfillment from relationships, the more you can appreciate them for the beautiful tapestries they are, in which absolute and relative, perfect and imperfect, infinite and finite are marvelously interwoven. You can stop fighting the shifting tides of relative love and learn to ride them instead. And you come to appreciate more fully the simple, ordinary heroism involved in opening to another person and forging real intimacy.
I pray with my whole soul that the divide-and-conquerers among us will not triumph over us. We need each other in this world so desperately.
I'm an orphan. But the public has adopted me, and that has been my only family. The biggest family in the world is my fans.
I've learned that we all change constantly. It's rare to find that person who is growing with you in the same way at the same time, who encourages you to grow.
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