Smart people duck when they hear the dread announcement 'I'm going to be perfectly honest with you.

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

It doesn't matter whether the bride or the bridegroom writes the letters of thanks for wedding presents provided that these go out immediately after the arrival of each present and are not in the handwriting of the bride's mother.

You do not have to do everything disagreeable that you have a right to do

It is not rude to turn off your telephone by switching it on to an answering machine, which is cheaper and less disruptive than ripping it out of the wall. Those who are offended because they cannot always get through when they seek, at their own convenience, to barge in on people are suffering from a rude expectation.

The whole country wants civility. Why don't we have it? It doesn't cost anything. No federal funding, no legislation is involved. One answer is the unwillingness to restrain oneself. Everybody wants other people to be polite to them, but they want the freedom of not having to be polite to others.

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