People read informality as, 'Do whatever you feel like,' and whatever you feel like might be disastrous. — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
When politeness is used to show up other people, it is reclassified as rudeness. Thus it is technically impossible to be too… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
Washington knows that it is not safe to kick people who are down until you find out what their next stop will… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
You don't want to look too chic at a Washington party or people will think you don't have a job worth losing. — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
People will say, 'Seventy isn't old, it's middle-aged,' and I think, middle of what - 140? — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
Most people who work at home find they do not have the benefit of receptionists who serve as personal guards — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
The etiquette question that troubles so many fastidious people New Year's Day is: How am I ever going to face those people… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
Smart people duck when they hear the dread announcement 'I'm going to be perfectly honest with you. — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
The only way to enjoy the fun of catching people behaving disgustingly is to have children. One has to keep having them,… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
The mistake people keep making is that if they find a wonderful new tool, like email, they have to give up all… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
People who put slipcovers, doilies, plastic protectors, and cellophane on everything good that they own rarely live to see an occasion so… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
When people start hurling insults at you, you know their minds are closed and there's no point in debating. You disengage yourself… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
Over the last couple of decades, the personalization of the office changed dramatically... there's an informality people often take for the absence… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
Etiquette enables you to resolve conflict without just trading insults. Without etiquette, the irritations in modern life are so abrasive that you… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
people, in forming their opinions of others, are usually lazy enough to go by whatever is most obvious or whatever chance remark… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
The challenge of manners is not so much to be nice to someone whose favor and/or person you covet (although more people… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
It is not rude to turn off your telephone by switching it on to an answering machine, which is cheaper and less… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
Nowadays, we never allow ourselves the convenience of being temporarily unavailable, even to strangers. With telephone and beeper, people subject themselves to… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
The whole country wants civility. Why don't we have it? It doesn't cost anything. No federal funding, no legislation is involved. One… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
One reason that the task of inventing manners is so difficult is that etiquette is folk custom, and people have emotional ties… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
“There was no singles problem until singles got so single-minded that they stopped wasting time with anyone ineligible. Before that, it was… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
Visiting the sick is supposed to exhibit such great virtue that there are some people determined to do it whether the sick… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
You can deny all you want that there is etiquette, and a lot of people do in everyday life. But if you… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
People say when you're in love, you don't need etiquette. Well, you need it then more than anything. Or they say, "At… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
Shame is the proper reaction when one has purposefully violated the accepted behavior of society. Inflicting it is etiquette's response when its… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
Nowadays people consider it a disgrace to admit that they are not stressed. — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
Learn graceful ways of saying no and of pointing out that this pressure to do something is not in line with most… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
Many people mistakenly think a new technology cancels out an old one. — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
Charming villains have always had a decided social advantage over well-meaning people who chew with their mouths open. — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
A wedding invitation is sent by people who have been saying, "Do we have to ask them?" to people whose first response… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
The idea that people can behave naturally, without resorting to an artificial code tacitly agreed upon by their society, is as silly… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
People think, mistakenly, that etiquette means you have to suppress your differences. On the contray, etiquette is what enables you to deal… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
many of the guests will eventually leave the table to watch football on television, which would be a rudeness at any other… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
It has always puzzled me, in my business, that people think they have to answer questions, no matter how disagreeable or dangerous,… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
Screening telephone calls with a receptionist or the humbler answering machine is not a dishonorable thing to do. The warmest people in… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
it's no longer socially acceptable to make bigoted statements and racist remarks. Some people are having an awful time with that: 'I… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
The invention of the teenager was a mistake. Once you identify a period of life in which people get to stay out… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
'Honesty' in social life is often used as a cover for rudeness. But there is quite a difference between being candid in… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
A small wedding is not necessarily one to which very few people are invited. It is one to which the person you… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
When a society abandons its ideals just because most people can't live up to them, behavior gets very ugly indeed. — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
Smart people duck when they hear the dread announcement 'I'm going to be perfectly honest with you. — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
If you put together all the ingredients that naturally attract children - sex, violence, revenge, spectacle and vigorous noise - what you have is… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
The one prediction that never comes true is, 'You'll thank me for telling you this. — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
Chaperons, even in their days of glory, were almost never able to enforce morality; what they did was to force immorality to be discreet.… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
Perhaps the greatest rudenesses of our time come not from the callousness of strangers, but from the solicitousness of intimates who believe that their… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
We are all entitled to our little harmless habits, but we are not entitled to demand approval for them. — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
“Lady” is not used before the lady’s first name unless she is the daughter of a duke, marquess or earl; those who come by… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
Adorable children are considered to be the general property of the human race. Rude children belong to their mothers. — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
I have always believed that the key to a happy marriage was the ability to say with a straight face, 'Why, I don't know… — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
It is, indeed, a trial to maintain the virtue of humility when one can't help being right. — Judith Martin Copy Share Image
