Rules of Civility

by Amor Towles

Old times, as my father used to say: If you’re not careful, they’ll gut you like a fish.

—Slurring is the cursive of speech, I observed.

I guess there are two sides to every story. And, as usual, they were both excuses.

I have hoped; I am hoping; I will hope.

we draw a card, and we must decide right then and there whether to keep that card and discard the next, or discard the first card and keep the second. And before we know it, the deck has been played out and the decisions we have just made will shape our lives for decades to come.