222 Quotes by Judith Martin

The way one was brought up isn’t an excuse for rude behavior.

If written directions alone would suffice, libraries wouldn’t need to have the rest of the universities attached.

Etiquette enables you to resolve conflict without just trading insults. Without etiquette, the irritations in modern life are so abrasive that you see people turning to the law to regulate everyday behavior. This frightens me; it’s a major inroad on our basic freedoms.

Conversation consists of developing and playing with ideas by juxtaposing the accumulated conclusions of two or more people and then improvising on them. It requires supplying such ingredients as information, experience, anecdotes, and opinions, but then being prepared to have them challenged and to contribute to a new mixture. Conversation.

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 believe that they should have a say in the love lives of strangers and those who do not.

Miss Manners’ meager arsenal consists only of the withering look, the insistent and repeated request, the cold voice, the report up the chain of command and the tilted nose. They generally work.

What restricts the use of the word ‘lady’ among the courteous is that it is intended to set a woman apart from ordinary humanity, and in the working world that is not a help, as women have discovered in many bitter ways.

Being polite does not mean being mummified.

The obligation to express gratitude deepens with procrastination. The longer you wait, the more effusive must be the thanks.