Here are real lines on the golden rule from eight traditions. Some say to do for others what you want for yourself. Others say not to do to others what you would hate. Several call this rule the heart of their teaching.
12 Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.
Another Gentile came to Shamai saying: "Convert me on the condition that thou teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot." Shamai pushed him away with the builders' measure he held in his hand. He thereupon came to Hillel, and the latter accepted him. He told him: "What is hateful to thee, do not unto thy fellow; this is the whole law. All the rest is a commentary to this law; go and learn it."
Anas reported on the authority of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allâh be on him, He said "None of you has faith unless he loves for his brother what he loves for himself."
One should never do that to another which one regards as injurious to one's own self. This, in brief, is the rule of Righteousness. One by acting in a different way by yielding to desire, becomes guilty of unrighteousness. In refusals and gifts, in happiness and misery, in the agreeable, and the disagreeable, one should judge of their effects by a reference to one's own self.
129. All men tremble at punishment, all men fear death; remember that you are like unto them, and do not kill, nor cause slaughter. 130. All men tremble at punishment, all men love life; remember that thou art like unto them, and do not kill, nor cause slaughter.
As I am so are these, as these are so am I, identifying himself with others, let him not kill nor cause (any one) to kill
He ought to pity the malignant tendencies of others; to rejoice over their excellences; to help them in their straits; to rescue them from their perils; to regard their gains as if they were his own, and their losses in the same way
Tsze-kung asked, saying, "Is there one word which may serve as a rule of practice for all one's life?" The Master said, "Is not RECIPROCITY such a word? What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others."
When one cultivates to the utmost the principles of his nature, and exercises them on the principle of reciprocity, he is not far from the path. What you do not like when done to yourself, do not do to others.
Indifferent to worldly objects, a man should wander about treating all creatures in the world so as he himself would be treated.
Every quote on this page is checked word for word against the stored text of its book.