When I was a child we lived by a code of sorts, and of all things, purity of heart was the most important.
Much of the code consisted of things like, giving to the poor (luckily we didn't know any poor people, or I would have wondered what to give them).
Help little old ladies across the road (even though my mother still had to hold my hand to cross the road).
Always let your horse go home on a loose rein (even if he could outrun the Melbourne Cup champions at dinner time)
Follow the ten commandments, which in turn consisted of love God before all other gods (there were others?), do not steal, do not kill, do not bear false witness (and if I was ever to be a witness in court, I would not bear falsely) and do not covet your neighbour's wife, donkey or worldly goods (since I was a girl, I wasn't likely to covet his wife, he didn't have a donkey, so I couldn't covet it, but I knew I would have if he had had one, and our worldly goods were actually more coveteous than his). The worst things you could be were a yella belly or an Indian giver.
These were sort of formed when I was about seven years old and more or less do me these days as well, albeit somewhat modified. Of course, I now know there are actually 10 ten commandments and I try to live by them. There are other codes that help us live, but these are a good place to start.
I have talked to others from around my generation and a bit before, and they had very similar codes they lived by.
