Quote

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.

Judith Martin

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Judith Martin
Age: 86
Born: 1938
Born: September 13
Economist
Journalist
Washington
District of Columbia
Live
Periods
Adolescence
Children
Taxes
Parenting
Way
Late
Identify
Life
Pay
Teenager
People
Stay
Naturally
Wants
Humorous
Mistake
Invention
Inspirational
Period
Teens

More quotes by Judith Martin

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There are three social classes in America: upper middle class, middle class, and lower middle class.
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We are born charming fresh and spontaneous and must be civilized before we are fit to participate in society.
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Dishonesty is not the only alternative to honesty. There is also the highly underrated virtue of shutting up.
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Society cannot exist without etiquette ... It never has, and until our own century, everybody knew that.
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You do not have to do everything disagreeable that you have a right to do
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Honesty has come to mean the privilege of insulting you to your face without expecting redress.
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Allowing an unimportant mistake to pass without a comment is a wonderful social grace ... Children who have the habit of constantly correcting should be stopped before they grow up to drive spouses and everyone else crazy by interrupting stories to say, 'No, dear -- it was Tuesday, not Wednesday.
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Visiting the sick is supposed to exhibit such great virtue that there are some people determined to do it whether the sick like it or not. ... All visitors everywhere are supposed to make plans to depart if they observe their hosts visibly wilting or in pain, but this is especially true at hospitals.
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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.
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When you consider how epidemic boredom is in our time, you have to concede that entertaining is a healing art.
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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.
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Try not to annoy your relatives unnecessarily.
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The way one was brought up isn't an excuse for rude behavior.
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A general rule of etiquette is that one apologizes for the unfortunate occurrence, but the unthinkable is unmentionable.
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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.
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Nowadays people consider it a disgrace to admit that they are not stressed.
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We are all entitled to our little harmless habits, but we are not entitled to demand approval for them.
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If written directions alone would suffice, libraries wouldn't need to have the rest of the universities attached.
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The etiquette of intimacy is very different from the etiquette of formality, but manners are not just something to show off to the outside world. If you offend the head waiter, you can always go to another restaurant. If you offend the person you live with, it's very cumbersome to switch to a different family.
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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?
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