Words matter. These are the best Letitia Baldrige Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
It behooves everyone to move forward, think forward.
That’s how a nation’s manners are going to be taught – from watching others’ behavior and learning from the effects of that behavior.
Most people don’t know how to take compliments. That’s the biggest problem in America – we’re hesitant to give compliments and embarrassed at getting them.
People are less grateful than they used to be.
If you really screw up, send roses.
The best thing we can do to save the planet is set a good example for our kids at home.
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.
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.
The ’80s have not been a gracious decade, and people are seeking ways to be nice to each other.
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.
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.
A real thank you does not come by e-mail. They come in the mail in an envelope. And what comes out of an envelope is a beautiful thing to touch and to handle and to pass around for everyone to read.
President and Mrs. Kennedy would walk into the East Room with their honored guests, preceded by the military color guard, who then posted their flags behind the receiving line. This ceremony never failed to move all of us, no matter how many times the staff witnessed it.
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.
A man or woman can be known and respected for good taste, regardless of job or income level, if they make good choices in clothes, have good table manners, are kind and organize their home to look warm, welcoming, clean, and appropriate to their station in life.
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.
I’ve had a charmed life.
Chivalry isn’t dead. It’s just no longer gender-based.
Make people have a smile when they finish your e-mail.
When someone is wearing a dress that makes her look fat, don’t say ‘That’s a great dress.’ It always comes off badly.
I’ve had three broken legs and two knee replacements. But I’m very good at apres golf.
You’d be surprised how much easier it is to conduct business over tea than over lunch or dinner in a bustling restaurant.
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.
When somebody throws something out the car window, honk at them, but don’t give them the finger. We’ve got to temper our negative feelings about people who desecrate the environment.
Administrations had come and gone in Pennsylvania Avenue, but many old entertaining traditions had survived – thru habit and not thru merit.
Tea time is a chance to slow down, pull back and appreciate our surroundings.
When in doubt, look at what everyone else is doing.
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.
Kids today and for the last 20 years have held the fork and knife in unbelievable ways. They hold the fork with a fist and the knife like a saw and they shovel it in. It doesn’t matter to them which way they hold their knife and fork. They eat every which way. I’m amazed they get food into their mouths at all.
The whole art of flirting has simply disappeared. This probably will do further damage. If we’re going to become so uptight that we can’t say nice things to each other, then we’ve had it!
Nothing ruins the flow of conversation more quickly than refusing a compliment you have just received. Never disagree with something nice that is said to you or about you.
Jeans of any sort should not be worn in nice restaurants. They pollute the landscape. They should also not be worn in the workplace if no other workers wear them. However, if your office is casual, go for it.
When you pass 70, you forget your enemies. You think about the nice people instead.
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.
It’s very important with these young people who are graduating and getting married to write thank-you notes.
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.
At tea time, all the noise, greed and aggressiveness of the ’80s can be drowned out. For 45 minutes, anyway.
Europeans are easily offended by errors in their titles or full names. Their exasperation is equal to that shown by Americans when the department store fouls up their bills.
It’s nice to compliment people on what they’re wearing, but don’t make insincere compliments.
We need grace in our lives, and I’m not talking about heavenly grace. I’m talking about human grace. We should try and be warm and friendly.
Look at all those unattractive people talking about depraved things all day long on TV talk shows. People can talk about themselves, yet the art of conversation, which has to do with sharing, is disappearing. I feel as though I am chasing a runaway locomotive.
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?’
We are not passing values on to our children. We are not sitting down at the dinner table talking about the tiny things that add up to caring human beings.
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.
