Politeness is organized indifference.

Valéry’s aphorism treats politeness less as warmth than as a social technology: a set of codified gestures that allows people to coexist smoothly without demanding genuine intimacy or emotional investment. “Organized” suggests system and discipline—rules learned and performed—while “indifference” implies a protective distance. The line can be read as both skeptical and appreciative: skeptical because it exposes courtesy as potentially hollow, appreciative because it recognizes the civilizing function of restraint. In modern terms, politeness becomes a kind of interpersonal protocol that minimizes friction, preserves privacy, and keeps conflicts from escalating, even when participants feel little personal concern for one another.