In Your Own Favor

Learn to yield in the favour of many, so that some will intercede on your behalf in disagreeable situations.

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Help without demanding, so that others may help you without complaining.

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Do not imprison those about you to your way of thinking; give your companion the opportunity to interpret life as freely as you do.

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Be careful of the way you express yourself; gestures often speak louder than words.

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Refer to yourself as little as possible; cooperate fraternally in the joys of your fellow beings.

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Avoid overwhelming verbosity; he who talks without pause tires the listener.

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Leave the authorship of good ideas to others and do not worry if you are forgotten. Be convinced that any noble initiative does not really belong to you, since everything good proceeds originally from God.

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Think of your adversary as a bearer of equilibrium; if we have need of friends to stimulate us, we equally need someone to show us our errors.

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Be calm when arguing; your opponent's rights are the same as yours.

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If you pay too much attention to the criticism of the one who is inferior, then you must endure the constraints of the plane to which you have descended without feeling hurt.

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Be useful everywhere, but do not attempt to please everyone; do not undertake that which even Christ has still not attained.

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When faced with error, correct it first in yourself, and then in others, without violence and without hate.

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If treachery crosses your path, deny it the honour of indignation; examine it with a silent smile, study the process calmly and shortly afterwards, transform it into material worthy of life.

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Help the envious in a fraternal manner; spite is an undisguised homage to merit, and in paying this tribute, the common man torments himself and suffers.

XAVIER, Francisco Cândido. Christian Agenda. By the Spirit André Luiz. Great Britain: Allan Kardec Publishing Ltd, 1998. Chapter 4.