The result of our training must be the acquisition of good manners and noble principles. Avoid extremes, and hold to the golden mean, is an excellent rule that leads us safely through the various conditions of life and wards off many troubles and dangers. The following examples may serve as an illustration of this rule: Do not ignore your own self; let self-love and self-respect influence your conduct; but these must not be allowed to develop into selfishness and arrogance. Look after your own interests, but do not consider them as the supreme rulers of your actions. Be self-reliant, and keep equally far from self-conceit and self-distrust. Haughtiness and self-contempt are extremes to be avoided: be modest. When wronged or insulted by your neighbour, be neither callous nor over-sensitive; ignore insult and wrong in most cases, forgive them readily in others, and resent them only when forced to do so. In disputes and discussions be neither weak nor obstinate: be firm. Be neither passionate nor indifferent: be calm. Do not trust every one, lest your credulity mislead you; do not suspect every one, lest you become misanthropic: be discreet. Do not seek danger, nor fear it; but be prepared to meet it with courage. Be temperate in eating and drinking, and avoid both excess and needless privation. In spending your earnings show neither niggardliness nor recklessness: be economical. Work, but not in such a manner as to ruin your health. As to your future, be neither too sanguine in your hopes, nor despondent: do your duty, and trust in God. There are, however, exceptions from this rule; for in certain cases there is only the choice between two extremes. Such is Truthfulness. It is our duty to approach nearer and nearer the extreme of this virtue, and to consider the least deviation from it as vice. From our earliest youth we should train ourselves in the practice of this virtue. Every word that we desire to utter should be well examined before it passes our lips. We must be on our guard that nothing should escape our lips that is not in harmony with what we feel or think. In small matters as well as in important things truthfulness must be the principle which guides us in our utterances. “The lips of truth shall be established for ever, but for a moment only the tongue of falsehood” (Prov. xii. 19). “Keep thee far from a word of falsehood” (Exod. xxiii. 7). “Falsehood,” say our Sages, “has no legs to stand upon; whilst ‘truth’ is declared to be the seal of the Holy One, Blessed be He” (‏אמת חותמו של הקב״ה‎).