Benjamin Franklin's 13 Virtues
1. TEMPERANCE - Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation
2. SILENCE - Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling
conversations
3. ORDER -Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business
have its time
4. RESOLUTION - Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what
you resolve
5. FRUGALITY - Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; that is,
waste nothing
6. INDUSTRY - Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off
all unnecessary actions
7. SINCERITY - Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly; speak accordingly
8. JUSTICE - Wrong none by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are
your duty
9. MODERATION - Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think
you deserve
10. CLEANLINESS - Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes or habitation
11. TRANQUILITY - Be not disturbed at trifles or accidents common or unavoidable
12. CHASTITY - Rarely use venery but for health or offspring; never to dullness,
weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation
13. HUMILITY - Imitate Jesus and Socrates |
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The 10 Commandments. Count them for yourself.
From the Bible,
Book of Exodus, Chapter 20, verses 1 to 17:
1. And God spake all these words, saying
2. I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of bondage.
3. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
4. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing
that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the
water under the earth:
5. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord
thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children
unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
6. And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
7. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will
not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
8. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10. But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt
not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy
maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in
them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath
day, and hallowed it.
12. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land
which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
13. Thou shalt not kill.
14. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
15. Thou shall not steal.
16. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
17. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's
wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor
any thing that is thy neighbour's.
Also see The
Ten Commandments by Joseph Lewis for an athiest's perspective. |
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The
12 Steps of AA
These have been of tremendous help to millions of people conquering
addictions of various types, and are valuable to anyone seeking self-awareness
and life change.
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol (or whatever) -- that
our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to
sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as
we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature
of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends
to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so
would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted
it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with
God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and
the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried
to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our
affairs. |