Skip Cosmo and Men’s Health.

It’s just the same advice month after month anyway, and most of it is useless. It would be time better spent to consider how to be a bit more civilized, a little more refined and brush up on our manners. Because after all…

Instead of recycled tips on how to be better in bed, 10 simple rules all ladies and gentlemen need to follow:

1. Be polite to everyone. Kindness costs nothing and has infinite dividends.

2. A smile goes with everything.

3. Write letters—the real kind. It’s a dying art form.

4. Be on time. Punctuality shows the person waiting for you that you respect him.

5. “Please” and “thank you” are always in style. Use often.

6. Put down your cell phone when you are talking to another human being in person.

7. There are times when disheveled and relaxed is exactly the right thing. But when in doubt:

8. It doesn’t matter if you use the wrong fork or glass. It does matter if you are rude to the server.

9. Nearly everything is better in red: wine, lips, shoes, tie, toenails, roses.

10. Know when it’s time to break the rules.

Bonus:

 21 Mindful Rules to Live by—from 1645.

And more.

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