With graduation season on our doorstep, many of us will soon find ourselves poking around in the greeting card section in search of the perfect message to give the bright-eyed students in our lives.

But instead of picking out one of the normal platitudes which usually grace graduation cards – i.e. “follow your heart,” “reach for the stars,” etc. – why not take a different tack and give a student some genuine words of wisdom rarely heard today?

For those interested in doing so, Jefferson’s ten simple rules for living just might fit the bill:

1. Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day.

2. Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.

3. Never spend your money before you have it.

4. Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will be dear to you.

5. Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst and cold.

6. We never repent of having eaten too little.

7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.

8. How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened.

9. Take things always by their smooth handle.

10. When angry, count ten, before you speak; if very angry, an hundred.

Image Credit: Rembrandt Peale, public domain