Lauren Cowling of MentalFloss.com went through the list of 110 Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation that George Washington copied from a book as a young man, before he cut the book in half with his hatchet and threw it across the Rappahannock.
From those 110, Ms Cowling picked the Top 12, and to celebrate Presidents' Day 2019, here we go......
1. In the presence of others, sing not to yourself with a humming noise, nor drum with your fingers or feet.
2. Read no letters, books, or papers in company but when there is a necessity for the doing of it you must ask leave: come not near the books or writings of another so as to read them unless desired or give your opinion of them unasked also look not nigh when another is writing a letter.
3. Do not laugh too loud or too much at any public spectacle.
4. Let your discourse with men of business be short and comprehensive.
5. In visiting the sick, do not presently play the physician if you be not knowing therein.
6. Be not immodest in urging your friends to discover a secret.
7. Be not apt to relate news if you know not the truth thereof.
8. Undertake not what you cannot perform but be careful to keep your promise.
9. A man ought not to value himself of his achievements, or rare qualities of wit; much less of his riches, virtue or kindred.
10. Speak not evil of the absent for it is unjust.
11. Think before you speak, pronounce not imperfectly nor bring out your words too hastily but orderly & distinctly.
12. Drink not too leisurely nor yet too hastily. Before and after drinking, wipe your lips; breath not then or ever with too great a noise, for its uncivil.
PS: I break #3 more than any of them!
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