Years ago I bought some scrapbooks that were put together by a young woman in the late 1930s and early 1940s when she was starting her career as a school teacher and got married.

Here is one of the things she clipped from a magazine. It refers to Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points for peace that followed World War One, and this must have been published when events were starting to lead up to World War Two:

"The Eight Points
These Eight Points, subscribed to by many sociologists, may not be as famous as the historical Fourteen; they are, nevertheless, equally important as a war preventative, either international, sociological, or domestic:

1. Don't contradict people, even if you are right.
2. Don't be inquisitive about the affairs of even your most intimate friends.
3. Don't underrate anything because you don't possess it.
4. Don't believe that everybody else in the world is happier than you.
5. Don't be rude to your inferiors in social position.
6. Don't repeat gossip, even if it does interest a crowd.
7. Learn to hide your aches and pains under a pleasant smile.
8. Learn to attend to your own business. This is a very important point."

It sounds like good advice.

Comments:

You've just taken all the meaning out of life ...

Good Advice

I like the way it's worded. Sounds like common sense, but it's good to have reminders. I was going to say I was bad at #1, but then I read it again and realized it doesn't really fit. I've been told that I interrupt a lot. But I'm only trying to be helpful by giving the CORRECT information.

No 6 is hard to live up to. Seriously we would all do well to take this to heart.

There're a lot of sociologists who haven't abided by 2 and 8...