Judith Martin Thinking Quotations

Many people mistakenly think a new technology cancels out an old one.

In its natural state, the child tells the literal truth because it is too naive to think of anything else. Blurting out the complete truth is considered adorable in the young, right smack up to the moment that the child says, 'Mommy, is this the fat lady you can't stand?

You think death is any better an excuse for desertion than any other?

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.

You don't want to look too chic at a Washington party or people will think you don't have a job worth losing.

A wedding invitation is sent by people who have been saying, "Do we have to ask them?" to people whose first response is, "How much do you think we have to spend on them?

People will say, 'Seventy isn't old, it's middle-aged,' and I think, middle of what - 140?

It has always puzzled me, in my business, that people think they have to answer questions, no matter how disagreeable or dangerous, just because they were asked. Of course, we journalists would be out of business if they didn't.