People are stupid: given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want it to be true, or because they are afraid it might be true. People's heads are full of knowledge, facts, and beliefs, and most of its false, yet they think it's all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool.
#2 The greatest harm can result from the best intentions.
It sounds like a paradox, but a kindness and good intentions can be an insidious path to destruction. Sometimes doing what seems right is wrong, and can cause harm. The only counter to it is knowledge, wisdom, forethought, and understanding the First Rule. Even then, that is no always enough. Violation can cause anything from discomfort, to disaster, to death.
#3 Passion rules reason.
Letting your emotions control your reason may cause trouble for yourself and those around you.
#4 "There is magic in sincere forgiveness, the magic to heal. In forgiveness you grant, but more so in the forgiveness you receive."
Forgiving and being forgiven are powerful elements of healing for the soul. Forgiving others grants by the giving of forgiveness, but more so one receives healing by the necessity of letting go of bitterness through forgiveness of others.
#5"Mind what people do, not only what they say, for deeds will betray a lie."
People will lie to deceive you from what they truly mean to do. Watching the actions they take will prove their true intentions.
#6 " Let reason be your only sovereign."
The Sixth Rule is the hub upon which all rules turn. It is not only the the most important rule, but the simplest. Nonetheless, it is the one most often ignored and violated, and utter destruction lurk in the shadows outside its full light, where half-truths snare the faithful disciples, the deeply feeling believers, the selfless followers. Faith and feelings are the warm marrow of evil. Unlike reason, faith and feelings provide no boundary to limit any delusion, any whim. They are a virulent poison, giving the numbing illusion of moral sanction to every depravity ever hatched. Faith and feelings are the darkness to reason's light. Reason is the very substance of truth itself. The glory that is life is wholly embraced through reason, through this rule. In rejecting it, in rejecting reason, one embraces death.
The only sovereign I can allow to rule me is reason. The first law of reason is this: what exists, exists, what is, is. From this irreducible bedrock principle, all knowledge is built. This is the foundation from which life is embraced. Reason is a choice. Wishes and whims are not facts, nor are they a means to discovering them. Reason is our only way of grasping reality -it's our basic tool of survival. We are free to evade the effort of thinking, to reject reason, but we are not free to avoid the penalty of the abyss we refuse to see.
#7 "Life is the future, not the past."
The past can teach us, through experience, how to accomplish things in the future, comfort us with cherished memories, and provide the foundation of what has already been accomplished. But only the future holds life. To live in the past is to embrace what is dead. To live life to the fullest, each day must be created anew. As rational thinking beings we must use out intellect, not a blind devotion to what has come before, to make rational choices.
#8 "Deserve Victory"
Be justified in your convictions. Be completely committed. Earn what you want and need rather than waiting for others to give you what your desire.
#9 "A contradiction cannot exist in reality. Not in part, nor in whole."
To believe in a contradiction is to abdicate your belief in the existence of the world around you and the nature of the things in it, to instead embrace any random impulse that strikes your fancy- to imagine something is real simply because you wish it were. A thing is what it is, it is itself. There can be no contradictions. In reality, contradictions cannot exist. To believe in them you must abandon the most important thing you possess; your rational mind. The wager for such a bargain is your life. In such an exchange, you always lose what you have at stake.
#10 "Willfully turning aside from the truth is treason to one's self."
People who for whatever reason don't want to see the truth can be acutely hostile to it and shrill in their denunciation of it. They frequently turn their venomous antagonism on whoever dares to point out that truth... To those seeking the truth, its a matter of simple, rational, self interest to always keep reality in view. Truth is rooted in reality, after all, not the imagination.
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