Today, much of journalism and politics are in a kind of collusion to oversimplify and personalize issues. No room for ambivalence. Plenty of room for the personal attack. —Ellen Goodman

We could use a little more civility in American politics right now. We don't have to agree on everything before we can work together on anything. —Governor Deval Patrick

So let us begin anew...remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. —President John F. Kennedy

Let's do it. Let's hear what people think of everything.
—Rep. Gabrielle Giffords

I don’t believe in confrontation. That seems to me outside civil discourse and we all have to find way to be civil to one another. —Condoleezza Rice

Our country needs a setting for political debate that is both frank and civil.
—President George H.W. Bush

An open society—that is, a society of free human beings exercising free association, a society that does not defer to the dictate of any ideology—requires an open human being with an open mind. —President Václav Havel