222 Quotes by Judith Martin

  • Author Judith Martin
  • Quote

    Washington knows that it is not safe to kick people who are down until you find out what their next stop will be.

  • Tags
  • Share

  • Author Judith Martin
  • Quote

    You don't want to look too chic at a Washington party or people will think you don't have a job worth losing.

  • Tags
  • Share

  • Author Judith Martin
  • Quote

    Whamming someone smaller than oneself in order to teach that person civilized behavior is not within Miss Manners' concept of propriety, much less logic.

  • Tags
  • Share

  • Author Judith Martin
  • Quote

    Fairness does not consist so much of everybody's doing the same thing, but of everybody's being willing to do something that others don't want to do.

  • Tags
  • Share

  • Author Judith Martin
  • Quote

    If you put together all the ingredients that naturally attract children - sex, violence, revenge, spectacle and vigorous noise - what you have is grand opera.

  • Tags
  • Share

  • Author Judith Martin
  • Quote

    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 way that offends the people you're trying to deal with, they will stop dealing with you...There are plenty of people who say, 'We don't care about etiquette, but we can't stand the way so-and-so behaves, and we don't want him around!' Etiquette doesn't have the great sanctions that the law has. But the main sanction we do have is in not dealing with these people and isolating them because their behavior is unbearable.

  • Tags
  • Share

  • Author Judith Martin
  • Quote

    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 about all the other accomplishments of polite society except the minuet.

  • Tags
  • Share