expressed. What we are rather than what we say has the most permanent
influence upon those around us. Hence it is that where a group of
persons are met together in conversation, it is the inner life of each
which silently though none the less surely imparts tone and character to
the occasion.

It requires vigorous self-discipline so to cultivate the feelings of
kindness and sympathy that they are always in readiness for use. These
qualities are essential to agreeable and profitable intercourse, though
comparatively few people possess them.

Burke considered manners of more importance than laws. Sidney Smith
described manners as the shadows of virtues. Dean Swift defined manners
as the art of putting at ease the people with whom we converse.
Chesterfield said manners should adorn knowledge in order to smooth its
way through the world. Emerson spoke of manners as composed of petty
sacrifices.

We all recognize that a winning manner is made up of seemingly
insignificant courtesies, and of constant little attentions. A person of
charming manner is usually free from resentments, inquisitiveness, and
moods.

Personality plays a large part in interesting conversation. Precisely
the same phraseology expressed by two different persons may make two
wholly different impressions, and all because of the difference in the
personalities of the speakers.

The daily mental life of a man indelibly impresses itself upon his face,
where it can be unmistakably read by others. What a person is, innately