Words of Interest

Number 8.

Robert Louis Stevenson's 12 pieces of advice on how to live one's life

1. Make up your mind to be happy: learn to find pleasure in simple things.
2. Make the best of your circumstances: no one has everything and everyone has something of sorrow intermingled with the gladness of life. The trick is to make the laughter outweigh the tears.
3. Don't take yourself too seriously: don't think that somehow you should be protected from misfortunes that befall others.
4. You can't please everybody: don't let criticism hurt you.
5. Don't let your neighbours set your standards: be yourself.
6. Do the things you enjoy doing, but always stay out of debt.
7. Don't borrow trouble: imaginary things are harder to bear than the actual ones.
8. Since hate poisons the soul, don't cherish enmities or grudges: avoid people who make you unhappy.
9. Have many interests: if you can't travel, read about new place.
10. Don't hold postmortems: don't spend your life brooding over sorrows or mistakes: don't be one who never gets over things.
11. Do what you can for those less fortunate than yourself.
12. Keep busy at something: a busy person never has time to be unhappy.

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