• The dictum “What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence” by Christopher Hitchens has been my guiding principle as far back as I remember.
• I am curious what other people are about, what they think, dream, crave, are mad or repulsed by, etc. I will listen to them and read their accounts on all and any of that. I will respect their thoughts, for all thinking is precious. I will read texts of whatever might raise my attention. Out of curiosity, I will read anything, equally good and evil books, religious, communist, fascist, rightist, leftist, racist, western, and eastern texts and manifestos. I will reject the illogical or irrational, or presented without evidence. I might not approve the deeds that might come as a consequence of those ideas, though.
• When I meet a new person I assume she/he is the dumbest in the world. Then I give them time to prove otherwise. This way, I rarely get disappointed. They just move up the scale and stop where they are. On that scale, I am zero myself. Sometimes they move past me and into the plus, that’s amazing. If they reach zero, we become friends. Most times, sadly, they just remain there, on the left side of the scale.