When virtues are pointed out first, flaws seem less insurmountable.

DEAR MISS MANNERS:I a tired of being treated like a child. My father says it’s because I am a child–I am twelve-and-a-half years old–but it still isn’t fair. If I go into a store to...

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...

The invention of the teenager was a mistake. Once you identify a period of life in which people get to stay out late but don’t have to pay taxes – naturally, no one wants to...

Charming villains have always had a decided social advantage over well-meaning people who chew with their mouths open.

Nowadays, we never allow ourselves the convenience of being temporarily unavailable, even to strangers. With telephone and beeper, people subject themselves to being instantly accessible to everyone at all times, and it is the person...

There are three possible parts to a date, of which at least two must be offered: entertainment, food, and affection. It is customary to begin a series of dates with a great deal of entertainment,...

Nobody believes that the man who says, ‘Look, lady, you wanted equality,’ to explain why he won’t give up his seat to a pregnant woman carrying three grocery bags, a briefcase, and a toddler is...

There was no singles problem until singles got so single-minded that they stopped wasting time with anyone ineligible. Before that, it was understood that one of society’s main tasks was matchmaking. People with lifelong friendships...

We are all born rude. No infant has ever appeared yet with the grace to understand how inconsiderate it is to disturb others in the middle of the night.

The rationale that etiquette should be eschewed because it fosters inequality does not ring true in a society that openly admits to a feverish interest in the comparative status-conveying qualities of sneakers. Manners are available...

If you can’t be kind, at least be vague.