Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.
Source, in full
Actually a statement by American advertising executive and author Howard W. Newton (1903–1951); attributions to Isaac are relatively recent, those to Howard date at least to Sylva Vol. 1-3 (1945), p. 57, where it is cited to an earlier publication in Redbook.
Variants
Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy.