Courtesy celebrates the fundamental dignity of the person, of what it is to be a person. We defer our own affairs for a moment, not to dignify the affairs of the other person but to honor the person as a person, Courtesy operates, however, according to different laws than the laws of functional life. Courtesy takes detours, it squanders time, it lingers, it delays, it engages in the extravagant, the superfluous.
— Robert Sardello, The Power of Soul