The National Review's senior editor annotates principles that guided President Washington. Examples: "Labour to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience." "Rinse not your mouth in the presence of others." Includes illustrations and references. Annotation (c) Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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As a young man, George Washington admired and copied into a little notebook 110 rules for civil behavior that originated from a Jesuit textbook. Washington took these rules very much to heart, and that handwritten list remained with him throughout his life, serving as inspiring guidance from his military days at Valley Forge and Yorktown to his two terms as president.Guidance that at first sounds archaic, it is in fact just as relevant as—indeed, possibly more necessary than—it was nearly three hundred years ago. Richard Brookhiser makes clear the pertinence of these rules for modern readers and proposes that now more than ever we will be wise to follow the modest example of such a great man. Witty and insightful, Brookhiser’s commentary offers real-world instruction in the lost art of self-discipline, and his new preface provides a compelling and timely context in which to employ these guidelines today.
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