It is a widespread and firm belief among guests that their departure is always a matter of distress to their hosts, and that in order to indicate that they have been pleasantly entertained, they must demonstrate an extreme unwillingness to allow the entertainment to conclude. This is not necessarily true.

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

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

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.

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

. . . women were brought up to have only one set of manners. A woman was either a lady or she wasn't, and we all know what the latter meant. Not even momentary lapses were allowed; there is no female equivalent of the boys-will-be-boys concept.

Adorable children are considered to be the general property of the human race. Rude children belong to their mothers.