15 Beautiful Quotes on being Tactful
Perfecting the art of voicing your thoughts without making enemies
Wisdom is profitable to direct — says the Bible.
Being tactful is displaying wisdom in action and in speech. The oxford dictionary defines tact as skill or sensitivity in dealing with others or difficult issues.
Tact is a desirable quality as long as you must live and coexist with others. When we were young we said things and maybe those around us laughed it off, but after we grow we need to work, we get into relationships, we have to mingle with colleagues and extended family and people in little groups or tribes we may belong to.
We can’t say everything as it is, we need to learn to rephrase, we need to learn to recognize who might be speaking from an emotional drive or who might be speaking from a cognitive stand.
We need to respond to others accordingly — this is tact.
Maturity is about becoming a better version of yourself and being tactful is a plus for you and those around you.
Here are some of my favorite quotes about tact;
1. Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy ~ Isaac Newton
2. It is tact that is golden, not silence ~ Samuel Butler
3. Tact is one of the first mental virtues, the absence of it is fatal to the best talent. ~ William Gilmore Simms
4. Never start a sentence with the words, ‘No Offense’ ~ Gretchen Rubin
5. Tact is the ability to step on a man’s toes without messing up the shine on his shoes ~ Harry Truman
6. Tact is an ability to live in the midst of ugliness without getting ugly. ~ Debasish Mridha
7. The sea is a lonely and hostile place, Captain, ‘Jansen said coldly. ‘ It is always best not to make enemies of those who might be your friends. You never know when your ships may cross ~ Jocelyn Murray, The English Pirate
The world is a treacherous place, all that glitters is not gold, life is not black or white. It’s best to thread carefully. — Nguper
8. Arrogance, disrespect and demand have higher price, Kindness, respect and tact give better price. ~ Angelica Hopes
9. Tact is the ability to formulate your thoughts, carefully choose your words and effectively communicate them without offending anyone. This is the most difficult skill to achieve, the best skill anyone can possess and the most important skill in our daily lives. ~ Uzoma Nnadi
10. Tact is the knack of keeping quiet at the right time; of being so agreeable yourself that no one can be disagreeable to you; of making inferiority feel like equality. A tactful man can pull the stinger from a bee without getting stung. ~ George Horace Lorimer
11. Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment. ~ Benjamin Franklin
12. I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people. ~ Mahatma Gandhi
Look, its easy to choose to be the one who doesn’t get along with people. To be the one who is not liked but known for what they stand for.
I used to be like that, truth is, if you really want to make an impact, little or big, you need to be able to get people to listen and buy into what you are saying, voluntarily.
13. Coaches who can outline plays on a black board are a dime a dozen. The ones who win get inside their player and motivate ~ Vince Lombardi
14. No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world. ~ Robin Williams
15. I’ve always felt that a person’s intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting points of view he can entertain simultaneously on the same topic. ~ Abigail Adams
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An initial version of this article was published on the 11th of May 2018, on the Fisher Reflects
Hi, I’m Nguper. I write about relationships, life lessons, poetry and health issues. To see my stories in your feed, I’d love for you to follow me (Terngu)
