Judith Martin
Judith Martin
Judith Martin, better known by the pen name Miss Manners, is an American journalist, author, and etiquette authority...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionJournalist
Date of Birth13 September 1938
CountryUnited States of America
Judith Martin quotes about
fool email postcards
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.
friends good-friend helping
There is nothing like a good friend to help you out when you are not in trouble.
law community social-behavior
Etiquette is about all of human social behavior. Behavior is regulated by law when etiquette breaks down or when the stakes are high - violations of life, limb, property and so on. Barring that, etiquette is a little social contract we make that we will restrain some of our more provocative impulses in return for living more or less harmoniously in a community.
mean thinking differences
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.
love-you mean home
People say when you're in love, you don't need etiquette. Well, you need it then more than anything. Or they say, 'At home I can just be myself.' What they mean is they can be their worst selves. ... They always mean they will save all their anxiety about how to behave for somebody like the head waiter of a restaurant, someone they'll never see again.
mean friendly debt
Meanwhile, the empty forms of social behavior survive inappropriately in business situations. We all know that when a business sends its customers 'friendly reminders,' it really means business.
real women attention
Appearing to pay attention when someone is speaking is one of the cornerstones of real social interaction.
mistake grace wonderful
Allowing an unimportant mistake to pass without comment is a wonderful social grace.
class america three
There are three social classes in America: upper middle class, middle class, and lower middle class.
apology apologizing etiquette
A general rule of etiquette is that one apologizes for the unfortunate occurrence, but the unthinkable is unmentionable.
pregnancy able morality
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.
inspirational taken simple
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.
cheer deception audience
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.
library needs university
If written directions alone would suffice, libraries wouldn't need to have the rest of the universities attached.