If you can't be kind, at least be vague.
¶ (Attributed)
Quotations by ...
Judith Martin (b. 1938) American author, journalist [a.k.a. Miss Manners]
We are all born charming, fresh and spontaneous and must be civilized before we are fit to participate in society.
¶ (Attributed)
Allowing an unimportant mistake to pass without comment is a wonderful social grace.
¶ (Attributed)
It is far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your help.
¶ (Attributed)
Let us make a special effort to stop communicating with each other, so we can have some conversation.
¶ (Attributed)
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, nobody wants to live any other way.
¶ Miss Manner's Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior (1982)
Ideological differences are no excuse for rudeness.
¶ Miss Manner's Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior (1982)
Indeed, Miss Manners has come to believe that the basic political division in this country is not between liberals and conservatives but between those who believe that they should have a say in the love lives of strangers and those who do not.
¶ Miss Manners Rescues Civilization
There are three possible parts to a date, of which at least two must be offered: entertainment, food, and affection. It is customary to begin a series of dates with a great deal of entertainment, a moderate amount of food, and the merest suggestion of affection. As the amount of affection increases, the entertainment can be reduced proportionately. When the affection IS the entertainment, we no longer call it dating. Under no circumstances can the food be omitted.
¶ Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior (1982)
DEAR MISS MANNERS:
Can you tell me a tactful way of letting a friend know that she is getting too fat?
GENTLE READER:
Can you tell Miss Manners a tactful reason for wanting to do so?
¶ Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior (1982)
Miss Manners' meager arsenal consists only of the withering look, the insistent and repeated request, the cold voice, the report up the chain of command, and the tilted nose. Also the ability to dismiss inferior behavior from her mind as coming from inferior people. You will perhaps point out that she will never know the joy of delivering a well-deserved sock in the chops. True — but she will never inspire one, either.
¶ Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior (1982)
The proper use of embarrassment is as a conscience of manners. As your conscience might trouble you if you do anything immoral, your sense of embarrassment should be activated if you do anything unmannerly. As conscience should come from within, so should embarrassment. Hot tingles and flushes are quite proper when they arise from your own sense of having violated your own standards, inadvertently or advertently, but Miss Manners hereby absolves everyone from feeling any embarrassment deliberately imposed by others.
¶ Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior (1982)
When Miss Manners observes people behaving rudely, she never steps in to correct them. She behaves politely to them, and then goes home and snickers about them afterward. That is what the well-bred person does.
¶ Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior (1982)
Treat your employees as if they were writing a book about you.
¶ Miss Manners (17-Aug-03)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4348-2003Aug16.html
About WIST
WIST is my collection of quotations I find meaningful, moving, amusing (intended or not), well-phrased, and/or to which I just say I "Wish I'd Said That." But just because I quote it here doesn't mean I actually agree with it. If you have any comments, corrections, or suggestions, please don't hesitate to
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