Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
People read informality as, 'Do whatever you feel like,' and whatever you feel like might be disastrous.
The language of clothing is high symbolism and we all, in moments where we need to know this, realize it.
Appearing to pay attention when someone is speaking is one of the cornerstones of real social interaction.
My children did not go through a stage of being rude to their parents. I'm sorry if that sounds incredible.
Most people who work at home find they do not have the benefit of receptionists who serve as personal guards
Part of the skill of saying no is to shut up afterward and not babble on, offering material for an argument.
Dishonesty is not the only alternative to honesty. There is also the highly underrated virtue of shutting up.
Most people who work at home find they do not have the benefit of receptionists who serve as personal guards.
We are born charming fresh and spontaneous and must be civilized before we are fit to participate in society.
You don't want to look too chic at a Washington party or people will think you don't have a job worth losing.
When you consider how epidemic boredom is in our time, you have to concede that entertaining is a healing art.
We are born charming, fresh and spontaneous and must be civilized before we are fit to participate in society.
It is one of Miss Manners's great discoveries that one needn't contradict others in order to set them straight.
If written directions alone would suffice, libraries wouldn't need to have the rest of the universities attached.
Washington knows that it is not safe to kick people who are down until you find out what their next stop will be.
When a society abandons its ideals just because most people can't live up to them, behavior gets very ugly indeed.
Adorable children are considered to be the general property of the human race. Rude children belong to their mothers.
Charming villains have always had a decided social advantage over well-meaning people who chew with their mouths open.
A general rule of etiquette is that one apologizes for the unfortunate occurrence, but the unthinkable is unmentionable.
Question- Should I loan a small amount of money to a friend? Answer- If you are sure that you can, if necessary, spare both.
the obligation to express gratitude deepens with procrastination. The longer you wait, the more effusive must be the thanks.
Life is full of wonderful passions that come and go over the years, but the only one that will never let you down is reading.
The etiquette question that troubles so many fastidious people New Year's Day is: How am I ever going to face those people again?
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.
When someone has tried to please you, it is rude, as well as disheartening, to respond by announcing that the effort was a failure.
When politeness is used to show up other people, it is reclassified as rudeness. Thus it is technically impossible to be too polite.
You should resolve not to seek public approval of your private business, when you are not also prepared to accept public disapproval.
[after the death of a loved one] It is when there is nothing more to be done that the reality of the loss often hits with full force.
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 not invited.
For email, the old postcard rule applies. Nobody else is supposed to read your postcards, but you'd be a fool if you wrote anything private on one.
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.
We are all born rude. No infant has ever appeared yet with the grace to understand how inconsiderate it is to disturb others in the middle of the night.
Whamming someone smaller than oneself in order to teach that person civilized behavior is not within Miss Manners' concept of propriety, much less logic.
Presents are symbolic. When you give them in your personal life, they should show that you are paying attention to the person to whom you're giving them.
The more skillful the performance of false cheer, the more pleasing the effect is upon one's public and on that private audience to whom one owes even more.
We already know that anonymous letters are despicable. In etiquette, as well as in law, hiring a hit man to do the job does not relieve you of responsibility.
If you put together all the ingredients that naturally attract children - sex, violence, revenge, spectacle and vigorous noise - what you have is grand opera.
Knowing that others have gone through similar tragedies may be a help, but it should be remembered that every tragedy is not only commonplace but also unique.
What we have come to, through a combination of popular psychology and expanding technology, is a presumption that all our thoughts and feelings are worth uttering.
Chaperons, even in their days of glory, were almost never able to enforce morality; what they did was to force immorality to be discreet. This is no small contribution.
Parents should conduct their arguments in quiet, respectful tones, but in a foreign language. You'd be surprised what an inducement that is to the education of children.
A wedding invitation is sent by people who have been saying, "Do we have to ask them?" to people whose first response is, "How much do you think we have to spend on them?
When people start hurling insults at you, you know their minds are closed and there's no point in debating. You disengage yourself as quickly as possible from the situation.
Over the last couple of decades, the personalization of the office changed dramatically... there's an informality people often take for the absence of rules - which it's not.
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.
Etiquette does not render you defenseless. If it did, even I wouldn't subscribe to it. But rudeness in retaliation for rudeness just doubles the amount of rudeness in the world.
People who put slipcovers, doilies, plastic protectors, and cellophane on everything good that they own rarely live to see an occasion so good that all these covers are removed.
The family dinner table is the cornerstone of civilization and those who 'graze' from refrigerators or in front of the television sets are doomed to remain in a state of savagery.
Honesty is a virtue, but not the only one. If you're in a courtroom you need the whole truth and nothing but the truth; in the living room, sometimes you need anything but. Often.
People think, mistakenly, that etiquette means you have to suppress your differences. On the contray, etiquette is what enables you to deal with them; it gives you a set of rules.