We are born charming fresh and spontaneous and must be civilized before we are fit to participate in society.

Washington knows that it is not safe to kick people who are down until you find out what their next stop will be.

The challenge of manners is not so much to be nice to someone whose favor and/or person you covet (although more people need to be reminded of that necessity than one would suppose) as to be exposed to the bad manners of others without imitating them.

From Memorial Day to Labor Day, you may wear white shoes. Not before and not after. As a command, the White Shoe Edict should be clear and simple enough. Do not violate it. In a society in which everything else has become relative, a matter of how it makes you feel, a question between you and your conscience, and an opportunity for you to be really you, this is an absolute.

many of the guests will eventually leave the table to watch football on television, which would be a rudeness at any other occasion but is a relief at Thanksgiving and probably the only way to get those people to budge.

There is nothing like a good friend to help you out when you are not in trouble.

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