When A Society Abandons Its Ideals Just

You Don't Want To Look Too Chic At A Washington Party Or People Will Think You Don't Have A Job Worth Losing.

Visiting The Sick Is Supposed To Exhibit Such Great Virtue That There Are Some People Determined To Do It Whether The Sick Like It Or Not. ... All Visitors Everywhere Are Supposed To Make Plans To Depart If They Observe Their Hosts Visibly Wilting Or In Pain, But This Is Especially True At Hospitals.

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.

Honesty Is A Virtue, But Not The Only One. If You're In A Courtroom You Need The Whole Truth And Nothing But The Truth; In The Living Room, Sometimes You Need Anything But. Often.

Indeed, Miss Manners Has Come To Believe That The Basic Political Division In This Country Is Not Between Liberals And Conservatives But Between Those Who Believe That They Should Have A Say In The Love Lives Of Strangers And Those Who Do Not.