DEAR ABBY: One night I was in a hotel room and browsing through a magazine. In it was an article about Finch College for Women in New York City. The school is no longer in existence, but I believe their maxims are timeless. If you agree, perhaps you will share them with your readers. -- ABBY FAN IN CALIFORNIA
DEAR FAN: I do agree. They are thought-provoking and certainly worth sharing -- even though the Finch may have flown:
FINCH SCHOOL MAXIMS
(1) Believing in people usually brings out the best in them.
(2) There is always another side; suspend judgment.
(3) There is always a solution to every problem. Do not waste time on self-pity.
(4) Be considerate. Your actions affect others, and other people's feelings are just like your own.
(5) Be kind. Remember that other people are as intuitive as you are, and judge you just as you do them.
(6) Be sincere. In the long run everyone will find you out and judge you by your true self and not by your pretensions.
(7) Snobbishness of any kind is a sign of limitation.
(8) Remember that recreation must be to re-create for work.
(9) Remember that you must be worthy and capable of love to be able to give or to keep it.
(10) Remember that you have a soul just as you have a body and a social self. Do not starve it.