Judith Martin quotes

Judith Martin is an American author and journalist, best known for her "Miss Manners" etiquette columns. Her witty and insightful advice on social behavior has influenced generations of readers. She continues to be a respected authority on etiquette and contemporary manners. Here are 61 of her quotes:

If you can't be kind, at least be vague.

Judith Martin

It's far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your help.

Judith Martin

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.

Judith Martin

There are three social classes in America: upper middle class, middle class, and lower middle class.

Judith Martin

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.

Judith Martin

When a society abandons its ideals just because most people can't live up to them, behavior gets very ugly indeed.

Judith Martin

everyone old enough to have a secret is entitled to have some place to keep it.

Judith Martin

The greater the controversy, the more you need manners.

Judith Martin

Charming villains have always had a decided social advantage over well-meaning people who chew with their mouths open.

Judith Martin

When people start hurling insults at you, you know their minds are closed and there's no point in debating. You disengage yourself as quickly as possible from the situation.

Judith Martin

Etiquette does not render you defenseless. If it did, even I wouldn't subscribe to it. But rudeness in retaliation for rudeness just doubles the amount of rudeness in the world.

Judith Martin

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.

Judith Martin

One of the big no-nos in cyberspace is that you do not go into a social activity, a chat group or something like that, and start advertising or selling things. This etiquette rule is an attempt to separate one's social life, which should be pure enjoyment and relaxation, from the pressures of work.

Judith Martin

Hypocrisy is not generally a social sin, but a virtue.

Judith Martin

Many people mistakenly think a new technology cancels out an old one.

Judith Martin

You glance at an e-mail. You give more attention to a real letter.

Judith Martin

Learn graceful ways of saying no and of pointing out that this pressure to do something is not in line with most people's wishes.

Judith Martin

A lot of men got upset at the feminist movement because they had all the toys and we wanted some.

Judith Martin

Only a person who considers himself too good for you is good enough.

Judith Martin

The one prediction that never comes true is, 'You'll thank me for telling you this.

Judith Martin

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

Most people who work at home find they do not have the benefit of receptionists who serve as personal guards.

Judith Martin