Quote collection
144 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"I have always believed that the key to a happy marriage was the ability to say with a straight face, 'Why, I don't know what you're worrying about. I thought you were very funny last night and I'm sure everybody else did, too."
"The simple idea that everyone needs a reasonable amount of challenging work in his or her life, and also a personal life, complete with noncompetitive leisure, has never really taken hold."
"A general rule of etiquette is that one apologizes for the unfortunate occurrence, but the unthinkable is unmentionable."
"You do not have to do everything disagreeable that you have a right to do"
"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."
"When you're in love, you put up with things that, when you're out of love you cite."
"I make a distinction between manners and etiquette - manners as the principles, which are eternal and universal, etiquette as the particular rules which are arbitrary and different in different times, different situations, different cultures."
"Part of the skill of saying no is to shut up afterward and not babble on, offering material for an argument."
"There is nothing like a good friend to help you out when you are not in trouble."
"You should resolve not to seek public approval of your private business, when you are not also prepared to accept public disapproval."
"Allowing an unimportant mistake to pass without comment is a wonderful social grace."
"Shame is the proper reaction when one has purposefully violated the accepted behavior of society. Inflicting it is etiquette's response when its rules are disobeyed. The law has all kinds of nasty ways of retaliating when it is disregarded, but etiquette has only a sense of social shame to deter people from treating others in ways they know are wrong. So naturally Miss Manners wants to maintain the sense of shame. Some forms of discomfort are fully justified, and the person who feels shame ought to be dealing with removing its causes rather than seeking to relieve the symptoms."
"It is, indeed, a trial to maintain the virtue of humility when one can't help being right."
"The idea that people can behave naturally, without resorting to an artificial code tacitly agreed upon by their society, is as silly as the idea that they can communicate by a spoken language without commonly accepted semantic and grammatical rules."
"everyone old enough to have a secret is entitled to have some place to keep it."
"The stress of making small talk with in-laws is called being part of a family."
"it's no longer socially acceptable to make bigoted statements and racist remarks. Some people are having an awful time with that: 'I didn't know anybody would be offended!' Well, where have you been? I remember when people got away with it and they don't anymore. That's fabulous."
"From Memorial Day to Labor Day, you may wear white shoes. Not before and not after. As a command, the White Shoe Edict should be clear and simple enough. Do not violate it. In a society in which everything else has become relative, a matter of how it makes you feel, a question between you and your conscience, and an opportunity for you to be really you, this is an absolute."
"The etiquette question that troubles so many fastidious people New Year's Day is: How am I ever going to face those people again?"
"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."