# Treat others the way you want to be treated



## RhoKappa

I think I may have started this topic earlier, but I cannot find it in my My Threads, so I will ask again.  The Golden Rule is the rule of reciprocity.  In short, The Golden Rule dictates: _Treat others the way you want to be treated._  In other words, if you want people to be nice to you, you must be nice to them first.  In English, when one says, "I believe in the Golden Rule," others clearly understand what he means.  An adage used to express this ideal is "What goes around, comes around."  If you are habitually rude to others, people will be rude to you.

Как сказать по-русски?


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## WordOrder

_Treat others the way you want to be treated — Поступай с другими так, как хотел бы, чтобы поступали с тобой._

_What goes around, comes around — Как аукнется, так и откликнется._


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## RhoKappa

Those sound great! However, I wonder if they are merely literal translations, but are they often spoken in everyday use among common Russian conversation?  Are there other adages that imply The Golden Rule?


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## WordOrder

The first one both the literal translation and a stable expression (a maxim). The second one is a proverb which can be translated as _“as the call will be the echo”_. To my mind, the frequency and situations of these expressions' usage in Russian are equivalent to ones for their English counterparts.


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## Linguoman

WordOrder said:


> _Поступай с другими так, как хотел бы, чтобы поступали с тобой._




I just want to add that the conditional form (with "бы") seems unnecessary. The expression can be worded as
_Поступай с другими так, как *хочешь,* чтобы поступали с тобой._
which makes it a bit simpler.


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## RhoKappa

If I simply tell Russians that I believe in The Golden Rule (how do you say it in Russian?), it would not make sense to them?


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## WordOrder

_В отношениях с людьми я следую золотому правилу нравственности._


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## Linguoman

I do not think that The Golden Rule (lit.: "золотое правило") is a common expression in Russian. I am afraid we do not have a name for it, we just recite the words.


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## Linguoman

WordOrder said:


> _В отношениях с людьми я следую золотому правилу нравственности._




If someone told me that, I think I would not understand which rule is meant exactly.


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## RhoKappa

OK, so there is no Russian noun that refers to this rule of reciprocity.  In English, it is simply referred to as The Golden Rule, so thus it is easy to say in English that one believes in The Golden Rule.  By the way, The Golden Rule has origins from the Bible, and the notion is very popular in Christian countries.


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## Linguoman

Then I believe we need some votes from other Russians.
Personally, I never use a specific name for this rule, although the rule itself is very popular. As I wrote, I always recite the rule itself.


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## WordOrder

*золотое правило нравственности*


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## Linguoman

WordOrder said:


> *золотое правило нравственности*



Thank you! Due to some reason, I have never known that the rule has a specific name.
I do trust your source, but I still think this name is not widely known by public. Or am I the only one so ignorant?


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## Maroseika

Linguoman said:


> Thank you! Due to some reason, I have never known that the rule has a specific name.
> I do trust your source, but I still think this name is not widely known by public. Or am I the only one so ignorant?


I also would never guess what's meant. I think this expression is not well known in Russian.


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## RhoKappa

If most other Russians are not sure of what is meant by золотое правило нравственности, then it may be better to give the descriptive text, as Linguoman stated earlier.

Here is another popular adage to The Golden Rule: You reap what you sew.  Is there a Russian proverb for that?


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## WordOrder

_что посеешь, то и пожнёшь_


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## Rosett

Surprisingly, Bible quotes do not ring the bell in Russian individually by themselves, albeit all of them exist in the language and are commonly referred to as прописные истины.


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## igusarov

Linguoman said:


> Then I believe we need some votes from other Russians.
> Personally, I never use a specific name for this rule, although the rule itself is very popular. As I wrote, I always recite the rule itself.


I second that. The rule itself is widely known, but I've never heard anyone referring to it as "золотое правило". I think very few people know what "золотой правило взаимности" is supposed to mean, and if they don't know - that name wouldn't give any hint. However, I remember hearing "*закон бумеранга*" several times. I think this name is somewhat better because, in the right context, it allows any unfamiliar person go to guess what it is about.

The wording may vary a lot:

"Поступай с другими так, как хочешь, чтобы поступали с тобой"
"Относись к другим так, как хочешь, чтобы относились к тебе"
"Как ты относишься к людям, так и они относятся к тебе"
"Как ты к ХХХ, так и ХХХ к тебе"
"Как ты - так и к тебе"
"Как ты - так и тебе"


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## Rosett

igusarov said:


> "*закон бумеранга*" several times. I think this name is somewhat better because, in the right context, it allows any unfamiliar person go guess what it is about


The Law of Boomerang, or Boomerang Effect, exists in English, too. It diverges from the Golden Rule, from the very beginning.


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## igusarov

Rosett said:


> The Law of Boomerang, or Boomerang Effect, exists in English, too.


Does it mean the same as "закон бумерагна" in Russian? From what little I was able to read about the English Boomerang Effect now, I gather it is about an unexpectedly opposite effect of some action, rather than about reciprocity.


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## RhoKappa

I have heard of the Boomerang effect, too, but in English it is not as common as The Golden Rule.  Everybody in America immediately knows what is meant by The Golden Rule, and surprisingly most Russians are not sure.  What I am looking for is the Russian expression that every Russian will immediately understand as the rule of reciprocity.


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## 4elsik

Hearing the expression золотое правило нравственности  would not confuse me. It actually comes from the antique times and is easily derived from "expressions" of "philosophers" of that period. In any Russian university whatever the subject area is philosophy is studied. And it can't be that a student wouldn't know the rule. The Boomerang effect doesn't confuse me as well. If you are talking about the Golden rule, you can't happen to not know about the Boomerang effect as for me as they are interrelated. That is wby I can't say which of them is more common. I'm sure to have heard both of them in mass-media including movies, TV shows, tc. I wonder how some of you who might even have an academic degree would happen to not recognise the Golden rule if asked.

*(...)*


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