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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.

Judith Martin

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Judith Martin
Age: 86
Born: 1938
Born: September 13
Economist
Journalist
Washington
District of Columbia
Deals
Mistakenly
Differences
Suppress
Means
Etiquette
Giving
Enables
Mean
Rules
Think
Deal
Thinking
People
Gives

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When a society abandons its ideals just because most people can't live up to them, behavior gets very ugly indeed.
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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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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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A lot of men got upset at the feminist movement because they had all the toys and we wanted some.
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We already know that anonymous letters are despicable. In etiquette, as well as in law, hiring a hit man to do the job does not relieve you of responsibility.
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Nobody believes that the man who says, 'Look, lady, you wanted equality,' to explain why he won't give up his seat to a pregnant woman carrying three grocery bags, a briefcase, and a toddler is seized with the symbolism of idealism.
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The pejorative term political correctness was adapted to express disapproval of the enlargement of etiquette to cover all people, in spite of this being a principle to which all Americans claim to subscribe.
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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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Being listened to should be sufficiently gratifying in itself, whether or not the advice is followed.
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The way one was brought up isn't an excuse for rude behavior.
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It is wrong to wear diamonds before luncheon, except on one’s marriage rings. Before, after, and during breakfast, luncheon and dinner, it is vulgar to wear a mixture of colored precious stones. It is always a comfort to know that so many things one can’t afford to do anyway are vulgar.
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A young lady is a female child who has just done something dreadful.
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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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Try not to annoy your relatives unnecessarily.
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It is said that dispensing advice is easy. What is difficult is getting anyone to listen to it.
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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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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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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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There are three social classes in America: upper middle class, middle class, and lower middle class.
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