This is a brilliant analogy and I’m definitely stealing it for my own use.
Related metaphor from Robert Heinlein’s Time Enough For Love:
Moving parts in rubbing contact require lubrication to avoid excessive wear. Honorifics and formal politeness provide lubrication where people rub together. Often the very young, the untraveled, the naïve, the unsophisticated deplore these formalities as “empty,” “meaningless,” or “dishonest,” and scorn to use them. No matter how “pure” their motives, they thereby throw sand into machinery that does not work too well at best.
SInce we are on the subject of quotes, here’s one from C.S. Lewis, who I am not generally a fan of, but this is something that struck me when I read it for the first time:
“Oh, Piebald, Piebald,” she said, still laughing. “How often the people of your race speak!”
“I’m sorry,” said Ransom, a little put out. “What are you sorry for?”
“I am sorry if you think I talk too much”
“Too much? How can I tell what would be too much for you to talk?”
“In our world when they say a man talks much they mean they wish him to be silent.”
“If that is what they mean, why do they not say it?”
“What made you laugh?” asked Ransom, finding her question too hard.
This is a brilliant analogy and I’m definitely stealing it for my own use.
Related metaphor from Robert Heinlein’s Time Enough For Love:
SInce we are on the subject of quotes, here’s one from C.S. Lewis, who I am not generally a fan of, but this is something that struck me when I read it for the first time: