Topic
Friendliness in this collection is distinguished from friendship by its reach. Plato's instruction to be kind because everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle is the most universal directive: friendliness is the minimum consideration owed to strangers on the basis of shared vulnerability. Ingersoll on happiness being here-and-now and the way being to make others happy gives friendliness a practical economy: it circulates rather than depletes. Confucius on good thoughts improving both one's world and the world at large scales the argument from the personal to the social. Disraeli on the nerves destroyed by daily amiability to the same person is the honest counter: sustained friendliness in close quarters is more demanding than friendliness to strangers. The anonymous proverb — one is treated as one treats others — is the simplest expression of the social contract. What the collection argues is that friendliness is not a sentiment but a practice, and the most durable form of it is not warmth of feeling but consistency of attention.