J. Walker McSpadden
SELECTIONS FROM THE RULES OF CIVILITY
(Copied by Washington at the age of fourteen from an old translation of a French book of 1595.)
Show not yourself glad at the misfortune of another, though he were your enemy.
When you see a crime punished you may be inwardly pleased; but always show pity to the suffering offender.
Superfluous compliments and all affectation of ceremony are to be avoided; yet, where due, they are not to be neglected.
When a man does all he can, though it succeed not well, blame not him that did it.
Be not hasty to believe flying reports to the disparagement of any.
In your apparel be modest, and endeavor to accommodate Nature, rather than to procure admiration; keep to the fashion of your equals.