We spent a wonderful day at Jefferson’s Monticello in Charlottesville, VA. I marveled at this quintessential renaissance man who sought to understand patterns in nature and man. Alas, in him and in all of us we can see how we all fall short – he knew slavery was wrong and was yet a slaveowner trapped in a time and place that made it difficult to be someone else. Nevertheless, his 10 axioms on living life are as true today as they were almost 200 years ago.
1. Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.
2. Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.
3. Never spend your money before you have it.
4. Never buy what you do not want because it is cheap: it will never be dear to you.
5. Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold.
6. Never repent of having eaten too little.
7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.
8. Don’t let the evils that have never happened cost you pain.
9. Always take things by their smooth handle.
10. When angry, count to ten before you speak; if very angry, count to 100.
