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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?

Judith Martin

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Judith Martin
Age: 86
Born: 1938
Born: September 13
Economist
Journalist
Washington
District of Columbia
People
Spend
Saying
Asks
Invitation
Firsts
Invitations
First
Wedding
Much
Sent
Think
Response
Thinking
Whose

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Allowing an unimportant mistake to pass without comment is a wonderful social grace.
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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.
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Washington knows that it is not safe to kick people who are down until you find out what their next stop will be.
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You do not have to do everything disagreeable that you have a right to do
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people, in forming their opinions of others, are usually lazy enough to go by whatever is most obvious or whatever chance remark they happen to hear. So the best policy is to dictate to others the opinion you want them to have of you.
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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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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.
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Only a person who considers himself too good for you is good enough.
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Being listened to should be sufficiently gratifying in itself, whether or not the advice is followed.
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What restricts the use of the word 'lady' among the courteous is that it is intended to set a woman apart from ordinary humanity, and in the working world that is not a help, as women have discovered in many bitter ways.
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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.
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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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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.
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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.
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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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You think death is any better an excuse for desertion than any other?
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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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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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Most people who work at home find they do not have the benefit of receptionists who serve as personal guards
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Nowadays, you form your beliefs to fit your behavior, not the other way around.
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