Tea time is a chance to slow down, pull back and appreciate our surroundings.
Letitia Baldrige
Good manners are cost effective. They not only increase the quality of life in the workplace, they contribute to employee morale, embellish the company image, and play a major role in generating profit.
Chivalry isn't dead. It's just no longer gender-based.
Politeness decrees that you must listen to be kind; intelligence decrees that you must listen to learn.
If you really screw up, send roses.
When in doubt, look at what everyone else is doing.
I talk about beepers going off in the middle of a concert and people being late and not apologizing, and people not RSVP-ing, and adult children going back to live with their parents, which we didn't have in the '60s and '70s.
A bride is a bride the first time around. The white dress and the white veil are symbolic. So many people are breaking the rules that people don't know what the rules are.
When writing a thank-you if you've had lunch with someone downtown, send an e-mail. If somebody is giving you a dinner party in his or her home and all the work that takes, that person deserves a written thank-you.
Jeans should never be worn to someone's home if you are having dinner there.
If you care enough to look right, you care enough to act right. And vice versa.
If you are someone's guest on a corporate jet, the most important thing to remember is not just to be on time, but to be early. If you hold up the departure of the jet by as much as 10 minutes, you may cause the plane to wait in line for another hour or two before obtaining new clearance.
Business colleagues who have not seen each other for a long time but who have a good relationship can always shake hands warmly and grab each other's right upper arm or shoulder with their free left hand. Men and women executives should not kiss each other in public.
When you pass 70, you forget your enemies. You think about the nice people instead.
We're a nation of latchkey children. Manners start at home, and no one is at home teaching manners so that children have respect for others.
If you're making a social call, don't call past 8 P.M. The evening is a time when people need a respite from their work - a time to unwind, uninterrupted.
Manners make the world work. They're not only based on kindness but also efficiency. When people know what to do, the world is smoother. When no one knows what to do, it's chaos.
We need to reach out - spend more time together.
There are major CEOs who do not know how to hold a knife and fork properly, but I don't worry about that as much as the lack of kindness.
Nothing gets on other people's nerves at the office more than a whistler. And the sad part is, these whistlers don't know they're doing it. Someone should, tactfully, tell the whistler how much it disrupts the office environment.
Administrations had come and gone in Pennsylvania Avenue, but many old entertaining traditions had survived - thru habit and not thru merit.
It's nice to compliment people on what they're wearing, but don't make insincere compliments.
Knowing when and where to sit is something every young executive should learn. A junior person who comes barging into a room and takes any seat he wants catches the disapproving eye of senior management.
For every step forward in electronic communications, we've taken two steps back in humanity. People know how to use a computer and answering machines but have forgotten how to connect with one another. Our society is unraveling. We're too self-obsessed.
A really first-class company uses really fine stationery.
I've had a charmed life.
What the bride should do is call guests who have young children and say: 'I'd love to have the kids at the wedding, but we won't have room. Would you get a baby sitter, and when we get back from our honeymoon, we'll have you guys over?'
Make people have a smile when they finish your e-mail.
We have a lot of societal problems that we have to fix in the 1990s.
The best thing we can do to save the planet is set a good example for our kids at home.
The Kennedys tried to avoid using the big U-shaped table, but when they couldn't, they had several tricks - including keeping the flowers simple - to keep it from appearing overly stiff and formal.
I don't care what your politics are, I would wager that if you asked any American woman which administration would she have most liked to work for as social secretary, she would pick Jacqueline Kennedy's White House as the place to be.
An excellent wine, someone's best attempt at cooking, and the candles and flowers on the table can turn the simplest dinner into an unforgettably romantic event.
It's stylish to have people over. But unstylish to make them bring food. It's so tacky, making everybody appear at the door with a dish. Better to order in, use a caterer or bring prepared food into your kitchen.
The First Lady has a lot of power. I hope Hillary Clinton realizes that.
I was considered the luckiest of all the female gypsies since I landed the job as social secretary to Ambassador and Mrs. David Bruce at the American Embassy.
Going to a party uninvited always has been a negative action. It never has been acceptable. At the very least, it upsets kitchen preparations, parking arrangements, and even details such as space for hanging coats and depositing dripping umbrellas.
If somebody is disrespecting somebody, we should step in - even at the risk of getting slugged over the head.
We have lost the art of conversation. People are shy and don't know how to approach other people, and they are missing opportunities for relationships. And no one's entertaining at home anymore. They're not having people over for dinner.
Everybody forgets names and faces, and it's just inconsiderate to expect someone who isn't your boss or your sister-in-law to know exactly who you are.
When someone is wearing a dress that makes her look fat, don't say 'That's a great dress.' It always comes off badly.
If you take five taxis a day, one driver will be nasty, and the other four are perfectly nice. You remember the nasty one. But you should remember the four who were nice.
At tea time, all the noise, greed and aggressiveness of the '80s can be drowned out. For 45 minutes, anyway.
For every rude executive who makes it to the top, there are nine successful executives with good manners.
I have grandchildren who are going to need every cent I make.
The polished executive is ultimately the happy executive who can walk gracefully through life.
At home, we're listening to TV or playing with our computers, so our entertaining is rusting. We don't know how to be good hosts and guests in business situations.
CEOs are called by their first names by young whippersnappers. That makes everybody uncomfortable. We need order and structure back in the workplace.
If golfers know they look good, they will play better. I think that is valid for men and women.
I've had three broken legs and two knee replacements. But I'm very good at apres golf.
