RULES FOR GOOD CONDUCT

WIT SHOULD BE LIKE THE NIBBLE OF A SHEEP RATHER THAN THE BITE OF A DOG, 

FOR IF IT WERE TO BITE LIKE A DOG 

IT WOULD NOT BE WITTY BUT INSULTING.

Extract from "GALATEO," or "The Book of Manners," published in 1558.  The author, Giovanni della Casa, named the work "Galateo" after a fellow cleric famed for his probity.

pro·bi·ty

noun\ˈprō-bə-tē\

       : the quality of a person who is completely honest

Synonyms

character, decency, goodness, honesty, integrity,morality, rectitude, righteousness, rightness, uprightness,virtue, virtuousness

Antonyms

badness, evil, evildoing, immorality, iniquity, sin, villainy,wickedness

Related Words

high-mindedness, honor, incorruptibility, irreproachability,irreproachableness, right-mindedness, scrupulosity,scrupulousness; appropriateness, correctness,decorousness, decorum, etiquette, fitness, propriety,seemliness; ethics, morals

Near Antonyms

impropriety, indecency, indecorum, indiscretion;debauchery, degeneracy, degradation, depravity,perversion, pervertedness, sinfulness; crookedness,dishonesty, underhandedness, unscrupulousness; lowness,meanness, viciousness, vileness; corruption

***

"WITH EACH DAY I LOVE YOU MORE."

It also helped that I combined this bit of "Renaissance" advice regarding wit with one on a billboard just down the street from THE HERETIC, a club used to frequent when one of my favorite haunts cruising for men. 

 But this was back before the Internet came along and fucked up a routine/style that had taken me years discovering through trial and error then fine tuning into a lifestyle I was eventually content with.    Although not the one I started off dreaming for, better than nothing; you just learn to like what you can get.  

Anyway, this billboard made me laugh every time I would read it on my way home, most likely legally drunk and someone probably following me home for the evening; another overnight meaningful relationship.  

NEVER PICK A FIGHT WITH AN UGLY MAN;  

HE'S GOT NOTHING TO LOSE.

The reason it made me laugh, this was all the billboard said.  Not a clue what this billboard was advertising.  What was the purpose of that billboard?

But an advice that eventually came in handy.

***

"Mine honor is my life, both grow in one,
Take honor from me, and my life is done."

~Shakespeare

"Will mankind never learn that policy is not morality,--that it never secures any moral right, but considers merely what is expedie nt? chooses the available candidate,--who is invariably the devil,--and what right have his constituents to be surprised, because the devil does not behave like an angel of light? What is wanted is men, not of policy, but of probity,--who recognize a higher law than the Constitution, or the decision of the majority."
~Henry David Thoreau

"Take from a man his reputation for probity, and the more shrewd and clever he is, the more hated and mistrusted he becomes."

~Marcus Tullius Cicero