PREMIUM FEATURE
Advanced Search Filters
Filter search results by source, date, and more with our premium search tools.
“ ”Then there was the time that Mrs. Grover Cleveland attempted to engage a tongue-tied guest in conversation by seizing on the nearest thing at hand, an antique cup of thinnest china. “We’re very pleased to have these; they’re quite rare and we’re using them for the first time today,” she is supposed to have said. “Really?” asked the distraught guest, picking up his cup and nervously crushing it in his hand. “Oh, don’t worry about it,” said the hostess. “They’re terribly fragile — see?” She smashed hers. Mr.
About Judith Martin
Judith Martin (September 13, 1938 - ) American advice columnist (under the pseudonym "Miss Manners")
Biography information from Wikiquote
Additional quotes by Judith Martin
new method of taxing people with their faults has not only retained but magnified its own faults. It tells only one side of the story, and a far from disinterested one. Checking it out is difficult, but passing it on is easy.
One reason that the task of inventing manners is so difficult is that etiquette is folk custom, and people have emotional ties to the forms of their youth. That is why there is such hostility between generations in times of rapid change; their manners being different, each feels affronted by the other, taking even the most surface choices for challenges.
And you see control of your life disappearing as this catches on and people start booking your future without your consent. No, no, calm down. The “hold the date” card is not a summons, only a warning.