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.

One should not be assigned one's identity in society by the job slot one happens to fill. If we truly believe in the dignity of labor, any task can be performed with equal pride because none can demean the basic dignity of a human being.

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.

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.

The rationale that etiquette should be eschewed because it fosters inequality does not ring true in a society that openly admits to a feverish interest in the comparative status-conveying qualities of sneakers. Manners are available to all, for free.

Society cannot exist without etiquette ... It never has, and until our own century, everybody knew that.

When politeness is used to show up other people, it is reclassified as rudeness. Thus it is technically impossible to be too polite.