Golden Rule

Golden Rule, precept of altruistic behavior, that is, that people should do to others as they would have others do to them (see Altruism). With the Ten Commandments, it serves as a proverbial guideline of conduct for Christians, Jews, and others. It is derived in its modern form from Jewish and Christian sources. The negative form of the rule was stated in Jewish literature, as in the Book of Tobit (4:15) in the Apocrypha: “And what you hate, do not do to anyone.” It was also stated negatively by Confucius and other teachers of ethics.

The Christian rule, which posits a fraternal ethic from the practical basis of personal realism, is taken from two New Testament passages, Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31. Both Gospel texts report the exhortation of Jesus Christ in his Sermon on the Mount.