222 Quotes by Judith Martin

The invention of the teenager was a mistake. Once you identify a period of life in which people get to stay out late but don’t have to pay taxes – naturally, no one wants to live any other way.

Nobody believes that the man who says, ‘Look, lady, you wanted equality,’ to explain why he won’t give up his seat to a pregnant woman carrying three grocery bags, a briefcase, and a toddler is seized with the symbolism of idealism.

Miss Manners fails to understand why philanthropists would turn from the needy to the greedy, but she is not in the business of laundering rudeness to make it seem acceptable.

Yes, etiquette is hypocritical. Yes, it does inhibit children – if you’re lucky. But the idea that it’s elitist and irrelevant is like saying language is elitist and irrelevant.

The etiquette business has its emergencies, heaven knows, but it is in the nature of etiquette emergencies that once one realizes what one has done, it is too late. One might as well get a good night’s sleep and send flowers with an apology in the morning.

The pejorative term “political correctness” was adapted to express disapproval of the enlargement of etiquette to cover all people, in spite of this being a principle to which all Americans claim to subscribe.

Everybody’s an art critic.

Miss Manners remembers who should be introduced to whom, but then she also remembers the difference between “who” and “whom.” The formula is simple: One introduces inferiors to their superiors. Thus, gentlemen are introduced to ladies, young people to old, unranked ones to those of exalted stature and your own relatives to everyone else. It.

Learn graceful ways of saying no and of pointing out that this pressure to do something is not in line with most people’s wishes.