1. Keep skid chains on your tongue; always say less than you think. Cultivate a low, persuasive voice. How you say it often counts for more than what you say.
2. Make promises sparingly, and keep them faithfully no matter what it costs you.
3. Never let an opportunity pass to say a kind word and encouraging thing to or about someone. Praise good work done, regardless of who did it. If criticism is merited, criticize helpfully, never spitefully.
4. Be interested in others - interested in the pursuits, their welfare, their homes and families. Make merry with those who rejoice, and mourn with those who weep. Let everyone you meet, however humble, feel that you regard him as a person of importance.
5. Be cheerful; keep the corners of your mouth turned up. Hide your pains, your worries and disappointments under a pleasant smile. Laugh at good stories, and learn to tell them.
6. Preserve an open mind on all debatable questions. Discuss, but don't argue. It is a mark of superior minds to disagree and yet be friendly.
7. Let virtues, if you have any, speak for themselves, and refuse to talk of another's vices. Discourage gossip; make it a rule to say nothing of another unless it is something good.
8. Be careful of another's feelings. Wit and humor at the other fellow's expense are rarely worth the effort, and may hurt where least expected.
9. Pay no attention to ill-natured remarks about you. Simply live so that no one will believe them. Disordered nerves and bad digestion are common of backbiting.
10. Don't be too anxious about getting your dues. Do your work, be patient and keep your disposition sweet. Forget self, and you will be respected and rewarded.
-- From the 1967 National OA Conference.