In moderation has eased itself into the lexicon of all polite conversation when your trying to get someone to stop doing a bad thing, but you don’t want to scare them with the prospect of totally stopping yet.

  • Drinking… in moderation
  • Smoking… in moderation
  • Recreational Drugs… in moderation

Or when it comes from people in authority it just means “I’m not ready to have this fight, so I’ll just say in moderation as a catch all so you wont get mad at me”

  • ScrollerBall@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    2 days ago

    There are three things which come to my mind which I consider excellent advice:

    First, girls, don’t smoke–that is, don’t smoke to excess. I am seventy- three and a half years old, and have been smoking seventy-three of them. But I never smoke to excess–that is, I smoke in moderation, only one cigar at a time.

    Second, don’t drink–that is, don’t drink to excess.

    Third, don’t marry–I mean, to excess.

    • Mark Twain last public address, St. Timothy’s School for Girls, Catonsville, MD, 9 June 1909