Rules of Civility

by Amor Towles

For many are called, but few are chosen.

What a relief it was, those few minutes with our guard let down and our gaze inexact, finding the one true solace that human isolation allows.

Uncompromising purpose and the search for eternal truth have an unquestionable sex appeal for the young and high-minded; but when a person loses the ability to take pleasure in the mundane—in the cigarette on the stoop or the gingersnap in the bath—she has probably put herself in unnecessary danger.

One must be prepared to fight for one’s simple pleasures and to defend them against elegance and erudition and all manner of glamorous enticements.