The Rules I Try to Live By
Robert Louis Stevenson

The following “daily dozen” were the personal creed of Robert Louis Stevenson

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 worry you.

5. Don’t let your neighbor set your standards. Be yourself.

6. Do the things you enjoy doing, but stay out of debt.

7. Don’t borrow trouble. Imaginary burdens are harder to bear than the actual ones.

8. Since hate poisons the soul, do not cherish enmities or grudges. Avoid people who make you unhappy.

9. Have many interests. If you can’t travel, read about new places.

10. Don’t hold postmortems. Don’t spend your life brooding over sorrows and 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.

From: Robert Louis Stevenson: A Biography by J. R. Rice Jr. 1988

The above article, “The Rules I Try To Live By,” are the words of Robert Louis Stevenson. The article was excerpted from Robert Louis Stevenson: A Biography which was written by J.R. Rice Jr. in 1988.

The material is most likely copyrighted and should not be reprinted under any other name or author. However, this material may be freely used for personal study and research purposes.