Daily Thought For February 8, 2022

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A Great Resolution

I will never disdain meeting any person, no matter who they may be nor will I show any sign of wishing to avoid them for this earns one the reputation of being proud, haughty, unseeing, arrogant, snobbish, ambitious, and manipulative. . . Above all, I will be careful neither to criticize, nor to mock, nor to make fun of those who have no reason to put up with such treatment. I will show great respect for all, and I will not be pretentious. I will speak little but well, so rather than boring my friends I will whet their appetite for further conversation at a later time. 

With either friends or acquaintances, I will be especially careful to observe this rule: Be friendly with all but familiar with few... Therefore in my relationships I will be courteous and not overbearing, friendly and outgoing and not cool and reserved, gentle but not affected, compliant and not contradictory (unless reason requires it), sincere and not deceitful, because people want to have a true knowledge of those with whom they are dealing. 

St. Francis de Sales (Spiritual Exercises, pp.36-37) 

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