Quote:


Wax, a substance naturally hard and brittle, can be made soft by the application of a little warmth, so that it will take any shape you please. In the same way, by being polite and friendly, you can make people pliable and obliging, even though they are apt to be crabbed and malevolent. Hence politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax.

Of course, it is no easy matter to be polite; in so far, I mean, as it requires us to show great respect for everybody, whereas most people deserve none at all; and again in so far as it demands that we should feign the most lively interest in people, when we must be very glad that we have nothing to do with them. To combine politeness with pride is a masterpiece of wisdom.





All of your edited text is very nice indeed and I'll add it to my paper AWAD collection, but I light out these two parts because in this context it becomes clear to me that Schopenhauer is referring to moulding wax while my first thought went out to candle wax.(the season,maybe)

The second part is just so well put! Great, I won't say I'm going to read all of Schopenhauer now, but every word makes clear that he is/was a great philosopher.

So thank you kindly and politely.