Judith Martin Quotes

87 quotes in 1131 categories

• Adorable children are considered to be the general property of the human race. Rude children belong to their mothers.
• Hypocrisy is not generally a social sin, but a virtue.
• A young lady is a female child who has just done something dreadful.
• She only maintains that it is possible, under some circumstances, for a lady to murder her husband; but that a woman who wears ankle-strap shoes…
• A small wedding is not necessarily one to which very few people are invited. It is one to which the person you are addressing is…
• The dinner table is the center for the teaching and practicing not just of table manners but of conversation, consideration, tolerance, family feeling, and just…
• You glance at an e-mail. You give more attention to a real letter.
• If it's against state law, it's generally considered a breach of Etiquette.
• You do not have to do everything disagreeable that you have a right to do
• Most people who work at home find they do not have the benefit of receptionists who serve as personal guards
• Indeed, Miss Manners has come to believe that the basic political division in this country is not between liberals and conservatives but between those who…
• Allowing an unimportant mistake to pass without comment is a wonderful social grace.
• It is wrong to wear diamonds before luncheon, except on one’s marriage rings. Before, after, and during breakfast, luncheon and dinner, it is vulgar to…
• One reason that the task of inventing manners is so difficult is that etiquette is folk custom, and people have emotional ties to the forms…
• You can deny all you want that there is etiquette, and a lot of people do in everyday life. But if you behave in a…
• The rationale that etiquette should be eschewed because it fosters inequality does not ring true in a society that openly admits to a feverish interest…
• What you have when everyone wears the same playclothes for all occasions, is addressed by nickname, expected to participate in Show And Tell, and bullied…
• There are three social classes in America: upper middle class, middle class, and lower middle class.
• Miss Manners herself, while never rude, is given to pulling a fast pinch in the way of a handshake on those who believe in kissing…
• A general rule of etiquette is that one apologizes for the unfortunate occurrence, but the unthinkable is unmentionable.

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