Golden Rule

Examples

Here is a short list of statements of the golden rule, in chronological order:

700 BCE "That nature only is good when it shall not do unto another whatever is not good for its own self." - Dadistan-i-Dinik 94:5, Zoroastrianism.

? BCE "Whatever is disagreeable to yourself do not do unto others." - Shayast-na-Shayast 13:29, Zoroastrianism.

500 BCE "Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful." - Udana-Varga 5:18, Buddhism.

500 BCE "Do not unto others what you would not have them do unto you." - Analects 15:23, Confucianism.

500 BCE "one word that can serve as a principle of conduct for life [is] reciprocity. Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire." - Doctrine of the Mean 13.3, Confucianism.

500 BCE "Therefore, neither does he [, a sage,] cause violence to others nor does he make others do so." - Acarangasutra 5.101-2, Jainism.

400 BCE "Do not do to others what would anger you if done to you by others." - Socrates.

300 BCE "One should not behave towards others in a way which is disagreeable to oneself. This is the essence of morality. All other activities are due to selfish desire." - Mahabharata, Anusasana Parva 113.8 (Mencius Vii.A.4?), Hinduism.

150 BCE "This is the sum of duty: Do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you." - Mahabharata 5:1517, Brahmanism and Hinduism.

90 CE "What you would avoid suffering yourself, seek not to impose on others." - Epictetus.

58 CE "And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise." - The King James Bible, Luke 6:31, Christianity.

90 CE "[A]ll things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets." - The King James Bible, Matthew 7:12, Christianity.

100 CE "What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man. This is the law: all the rest is commentary." - Talmud, Shabbat 31a, Judaism.

800 CE "No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself." - Hadith ?, Islam.

? CE "And if thine eyes be turned towards justice, choose thou for thy neighbour that which thou choosest for thyself." - Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, 30, Bah�'�.

1870 CE "He should not wish for others what he does not wish for himself." - Baha'u'llah, Bah�'�.

1999 CE "don't do things you wouldn't want to have done to you." - British Humanist society, Humanism.

Note that the positive Christian, Muslim, and Bah�'� versions differ from the negative rules in that they call for actions done that the recipients might not want.

Non-religious systems

A somewhat similar basis for ethic behaviour is often found also in non-religious ethical systems as, for instance, in Immanuel Kant's Critique of Practical Reason: "The rule of the judgement according to laws of pure practical reason is this: ask yourself whether, if the action you propose were to take place by a law of the system of nature of which you were yourself a part, you could regard it as possible by your own will. (...) If the maxim of the action is not such as to stand the test of the form of a universal law of nature, then it is morally impossible" (trans. T.K. Abbott). This is known as the categorical imperative.

See also: Wiccan Rede