appropo of nothing

[jenk]

Lazarus Long, from Time Enough for Love (and The Notebooks of Lazarus Long) by Robert A. Heinlein:

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 untravelled, the naive, 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 the machinery that does not work too well at best.

Henry Block, in Evolution:

There's always time for lubricant!

:)