The Silver Rule, "Do not do unto others what you would not have them do unto you", is a standard of behaviour found in the writings of, amongst others, Hillel the Elder. It is the converse of the ethical principle of the Golden Rule.
The Silver Rule is similar in meaning to the Hippocratic Oath, known best for the declaration "do no harm". Hippocrates wrote, in his Epidemics, Bk. I, Sect. XI. "Declare the past, diagnose the present, foretell the future; practice these acts. As to diseases, make a habit of two things — to help, or at least to do no harm." The shorter expression might be interpreted as a simplification of the longer one.
Famous quotes containing the words silver and/or rule:
“Eftsoones the Nymphes, which now had Flowers their fill,
Ran all in haste, to see that silver brood,
As they came floating on the Christal Flood,”
—Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599)
“This at least should be a rule through the letter-writing world: that no angry letter be posted till four-and-twenty hours will have elapsed since it was written.”
—Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)