Humility

From "Thoughts in Solitude"

It is not speaking that breaks our silence, but the anxiety to be heard. The words of the proud man impose silence on all others, so that he alone may be heard. The humble man speaks only in order to be spoken to. The humble man asks nothing but an alms, then waits and listens.

Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude: 91, 1958

Gentility is a virtue in conversations, listening a service. There is a common thread among arriving presidents in the United States of an appeal to gentility in the population. President George H. W. Bush appealed to a "kinder and gentler" nation; Pres. Clinton appealed to a new, "third way" in politics; George W. Bush likened to a "compassionate conservatism". Listening serves all of these qualities admirably.

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