The Golden Rule

子貢問曰：“有一言而可以終身行之者乎”？子曰：“其恕乎！己所不欲、勿施於人。”
Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself.
—Confucius
The Golden Rule basically means don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you. I think that the Golden Rule means empathising with people, understanding how they feel about your actions etc, and respect them by not doing anything that my hurt or harm them emotionally or physically. If this Golden Rule is applied to everyone life, a lot of hurt could be reduced. For example, if a bully follow this golden rule, he will choose not to bully others.
Immanuel Kant famously criticized the golden rule for not being sensitive to differences of situation, noting that a prisoner duly convicted of a crime could appeal to the golden rule while asking the judge to release him, pointing out that the judge would not want anyone else to send him to prison, so he should not do so to others.
However, it could not be used in this context. The prisoner should not have even committed the crime if he had applied the golden rule.