The advice below featured in the Australasian Record in May 1960. Titled “How to get along with people” and written by an unnamed literature evangelist, the advice is still relevant and encouraging 63 years later.
1. Keep skid chains on your tongue; always say less than you think. Cultivate a low, persuasive voice. How you say it often counts more than what you say.
2. Make promises sparingly and keep them faithfully, no matter what it costs you.
3. Never let an opportunity pass to say a kind and encouraging word to or about somebody. Praise good work done regardless of who did it. If criticism is needed, criticise helpfully, never spitefully.
4. Be interested in others—interested in their pursuits, their welfare, their homes and families. Make merry with those that rejoice; with those who weep, mourn. Let everyone you meet, however humble, feel that you regard him as one of importance.
5. Be cheerful. Keep the corners of your mouth turned up. Hide your pains, worries and disappointments under a smile. Laugh at good stories and learn to tell them.
6. Preserve an open mind on all debatable questions. Discuss but do not argue. It is a mark of a superior mind to disagree and yet be friendly.
7. Let your virtues (we all have some) speak for themselves and refuse to talk of another’s vices. Discourage gossip. Make it a rule to say nothing about another unless it is something good.
8. Be careful of the feelings of others. Wit and humour at the other fellow’s expense are rarely worth the effort, and may hurt where least expected.
9. Pay no attention to ill-natured remarks about you. Simply live so that nobody will believe them. Disordered nerves and a bad digestion are a common cause of backbiting.
10. Don’t be too anxious about your dues. Do your work, be patient and keep your disposition sweet. Forget self, and you will be rewarded.
