Neverisms

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For as long as humans have been able to communicate, they’ve used language to influence one another. Often, these attempts at influence take the form of urging people to live their lives according to a guiding principle or rule of conduct:

Try to be a little kinder than is necessary.

Make every effort to do what you are afraid to do.

Be smarter than the people who hire you.

When people state something as a rule, they are suggesting that the principle is an important one. Occasionally, they consider the principle to be so critically important they express it more forcefully, or even unequivocally:

Always try to be a little kinder than is necessary.

J. M. BARRIE

Always do what you are afraid to do.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Always be smarter than the people who hire you.

LENA HORNE

When attempts to influence are stated unequivocally, people move from mere suggestion to the more compelling arena of exhortation. The American Heritage Dictionary (AHD) defines the verb exhort this way:

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