This chapter develops a normative conception of civility, rooted in the author’s personal experiences in post-communist Hungary and grounded in the Aristotelian tradition. Civility is presented here not as a direct recapitulation of Aristotle’s thought but as a modern political-theoretical model built on Aristotelian foundations, mediated through Roman concepts of civilitas, urbanitas, and societas, and further refined by scholastic thinkers such as Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas. Drawing on recent scholarship, the chapter refutes narratives of an “oikonomization” of the public sphere, emphasizing instead the continuity of a distinctly political understanding of human sociability tempered by law, justice, and natural law. Civility emerges as embodied knowledge, a habituated quasi-virtue combining Aristotelian moderation with Ciceronian decorum, manifesting in responsible participation in public life. This participation of both office-holders and ordinary citizens is based on an identification with social institutions, the pursuit of the common good, and a harmonious exercise of agency. Excellence in such participation demands Bildung: education leading to character formation, blending private formation and public engagement, drawing from Greek paideia, Roman humanitas, and German idealist traditions. The chapter concludes by illustrating civility’s practical force through aesthetic, moral, and civilizational resistance to barbarism, where style, dignity, and an instinctive sense of propriety serve as bulwarks of human decency.