No Offence
The people who oil the wheels of society are not the people who never give offence, they are the people who never take any.
1875
Queen Victoria 1837-1901
The people who oil the wheels of society are not the people who never give offence, they are the people who never take any.
1875
Queen Victoria 1837-1901
There are those, said American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson, who feel they can never really open up, even among their friends, for fear of offending someone. Better, he advised, to choose more robust and sympathetic listeners for your little circle. The hero of an open and accepting society is not the man who never gives offence; it is the man who never takes any.
A FEW times in my life it has happened to me to meet persons of so good a nature and so good breeding, that every topic was open and discussed without possibility of offence, — persons who could not be shocked. One of my friends said in speaking of certain associates, “There is not one of them but I can offend at any moment.” But to the company I am now considering, were no terrors, no vulgarity. All topics were broached, — life, love, marriage, sex, hatred, suicide, magic, theism, art, poetry, religion, myself, thyself, all selves, and whatever else, with a security and vivacity which belonged to the nobility of the parties and to their brave truth. The life of these persons was conducted in the same calm and affirmative manner as their discourse.
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Some people cannot be offended. Emerson met them only rarely. He admired them.
See if you can include one or more of these words in your answer.
IAlthough. IIHurt. IIIWho.