The Student's Ten Commandments
By John M. Thomas
John M. Thomas, D.D., in The Independent 1. Thou shalt set the service of God and man before thine heart as the end of all thy work. 2. Thou shalt inquire of each study what it has for thee as a worker for a better world, not relinquishing thy pursuit of it until thou hast gained its profit unto this end. 3. Thou shalt love the truth and only the truth, and welcome all truth gladly, whether it brings thee or the world joy or suffering, pleasure or hardship, ease or toil. 4. Thou shalt meet each task at the moment assigned for it with a willing heart. 5. Thou shalt work each day to the limit of thy strength, consistently with the yet harder work which shall be thy duty on the morrow. 6. Thou shalt respect the rights and pleasures of others, claiming no privilege for thyself but the privilege of service, and allowing thyself no joy which does not increase the joy of thy fellow men. 7. Thou shalt love thy friends more than thyself, thy college more than thy friends, thy country more than thy college, and God more than all else. 8. Thou shalt rejoice in the excellences of others, and despise all rewards saving the gratitude of thy fellows and the approval of God. 9. Thou shalt live by thy best, holding thyself15relentlessly to those ideals thou dost most admire in other men. 10. Thou shalt make for thyself commandments harder than another can make for thee, and each new day commandments more rigorous than thine own laws of the day before.