Courtesy costs nothing, but pays a huge dividends an apt maxim which has been guiding mankind through all the stages of civilisation. “A man without sense of courtesy,” says the great essayist and moral teacher, Francis Bacon, “is an animal with human form.”
Courtesy is a term which can be interpreted and explained in various ways with various meanings. Courtesy, as a matter of fact, is a term that embraces every walk of our life and concerns all of us, whether boys, girls, men, women or greyed and withered people.
Every one of us is morally bound with one or other form of courtesy. We have to show courtesy, on our part, to our elders while they, too, should maintain certain principles of courtesy to be extended to their successors. That is why the cult of courtesy is governed by the principle of give and take.
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There are numerous instances-absolutely simple and easy of showing courtesy to others, causing you absolutely no difficulty or strain. For example, suppose you are travelling in a bus which is packed up and you have got a seat but a lady is standing. It is the principle of courtesy that you should offer her you seat, no matter whether she accepts your invitation or not.
Another common form of courtesy which is more often ignored by us is thanking and saying please to some one who offers you a small thing; before you accept it you must say ‘thank you’ even if you do not want it and like to refuse the offer. People often forget to use the word please which, as a matter of fact, costs nothing.
It is a principle of courtesy that when you meet an elder, you must first bow to him and say “good morning sir,” if you are sitting and one of your teachers happens to some near you, it is the call of courtesy that you should immediately stand up in reverence. While attending dinner or lunch you must not start eating unless your fellow guests do so.
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It is not only the matter of great pity but a matter of shame too that the present generation pays very little attention to the demand of courtesy.
We see, in our schools, and colleges, students behaving with their teachers in discourteous manner. Courtesy, it must be remembered, makes a man a real human being fit to live in a civilised society.