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The very essence of politeness is to take care that by our words and actions we make other people pleased with us as well as with themselves.

The very essence of politeness is to take care that by our words and actions we make other people pleased with us as well as with themselves.

Approximate author period: c. 1670 AD · renaissance

Meaning not yet available

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Attribution & collection notes
Author or tradition
Jean de La Bruyère
Attribution: attributed
Country attributed
Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin.
Historical period
Approximate author period: c. 1670 AD · renaissance
Approximate author-period evidence for Jean de La Bruyère: life dates 1645 to 1696. Wikidata Q314975, inspected 2026-10-08. Not a quotation composition date or independent verification of attribution. Source: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q314975 (accessed 2026-10-08).
An author lifetime, approximate period or collection date is not necessarily the date when these words were first written or spoken.
Recorded source
Contributor-provided quotation collection

Supplied reference C; CSV row 261393; supplied attribution, independently unverified

A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.