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Dishonesty is not the only alternative to honesty. There is also the highly underrated virtue of shutting up.

Judith Martin

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Judith Martin
Age: 86
Born: 1938
Born: September 13
Economist
Journalist
Washington
District of Columbia
Highly
Alternatives
Honesty
Virtue
Also
Shutting
Women
Underrated
Dishonesty
Alternative

More quotes by Judith Martin

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Honesty has come to mean the privilege of insulting you to your face without expecting redress.
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People will say, 'Seventy isn't old, it's middle-aged,' and I think, middle of what - 140?
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There are three social classes in America: upper middle class, middle class, and lower middle class.
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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.
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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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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.
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It's far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your help.
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Most people who work at home find they do not have the benefit of receptionists who serve as personal guards
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The only way to enjoy the fun of catching people behaving disgustingly is to have children. One has to keep having them, however, because it is incorrect to correct grown people, even if you have grown them yourself.
Judith Martin
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We have the reverse of the Puritan work ethic in America now. No one ever becomes a star by plugging along year after year. What is needed is flair, talent, 'an eye,' contacts, charisma, and, most of all, naturalness.
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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.
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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.
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The way one was brought up isn't an excuse for rude behavior.
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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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It is said that dispensing advice is easy. What is difficult is getting anyone to listen to it.
Judith Martin
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many of the guests will eventually leave the table to watch football on television, which would be a rudeness at any other occasion but is a relief at Thanksgiving and probably the only way to get those people to budge.
Judith Martin
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A young lady is a female child who has just done something dreadful.
Judith Martin
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What you have when everyone wears the same playclothes for all occasions, is addressed by nickname, expected to participate in Show And Tell, and bullied out of any desire form privacy, is not democracy it is kindergarten.
Judith Martin
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Screening telephone calls with a receptionist or the humbler answering machine is not a dishonorable thing to do. The warmest people in the world still need uninterrupted time to attend to their lives and should not be outwitted if they have made it obvious that they are not always available upon summons.
Judith Martin
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Being listened to should be sufficiently gratifying in itself, whether or not the advice is followed.
Judith Martin