“Being polite does not mean being mummified.”

“Email is very informal, a memo. But I find that not signing off or not having a salutation bothers me.”

“Etiquette does not render you defenseless. If it did, even I wouldn't subscribe to it. But rudeness in retaliation for rudeness just doubles the amount of rudeness in the world.”

“Etiquette is all human social behavior. If you're a hermit on a mountain, you don't have to worry about etiquette; if somebody comes up the mountain, then you've got a problem. It matters because we want to live in reasonably harmonious communities.”

“For email, the old postcard rule applies. Nobody else is supposed to read your postcards, but you'd be a fool if you wrote anything private on one.”

“Freedom without rules doesn't work. And communities do not work unless they are regulated by etiquette.”

“'Honesty' in social life is often used as a cover for rudeness. But there is quite a difference between being candid in what you're talking about, and people voicing their insulting opinions under the name of honesty.”

“Hypocrisy is not generally a social sin, but a virtue.”

“I make a distinction between manners and etiquette - manners as the principles, which are eternal and universal, etiquette as the particular rules which are arbitrary and different in different times, different situations, different cultures.”

“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.”

“It's far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your help.”

“Learn graceful ways of saying no and of pointing out that this pressure to do something is not in line with most people's wishes.”

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

“My children did not go through a stage of being rude to their parents. I'm sorry if that sounds incredible.”

“One of the big no-nos in cyberspace is that you do not go into a social activity, a chat group or something like that, and start advertising or selling things. This etiquette rule is an attempt to separate one's social life, which should be pure enjoyment and relaxation, from the pressures of work.”

“Presents are symbolic. When you give them in your personal life, they should show that you are paying attention to the person to whom you're giving them.”

“The greater the controversy, the more you need manners.”

“The language of clothing is high symbolism and we all, in moments where we need to know this, realize it.”

“The mistake people keep making is that if they find a wonderful new tool, like email, they have to give up all others. They don't. You have simply added another very useful means to your communications repertoire.”

“We already know that anonymous letters are despicable. In etiquette, as well as in law, hiring a hit man to do the job does not relieve you of responsibility.”

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

“We're now seeing email that people thought they had deleted showing up as evidence in court. You can't erase email. As that becomes more commonly realized, people will be a little wiser about what they type.”

“When a society abandons its ideals just because most people can't live up to them, behavior gets very ugly indeed.”

“When people start hurling insults at you, you know their minds are closed and there's no point in debating. You disengage yourself as quickly as possible from the situation.”

“You do not have to do everything disagreeable that you have a right to do.”

“You glance at an e-mail. You give more attention to a real letter.”