On the occasion of receiving the highest distinction of the honorary professor from the Jagiellonian University at Kraków, the author looks back at his academic career and ponders how sociological wisdom has left an impact on his life. He singles out the sixteen principles and rules formulated by the eminent sociologists, both classical of the XIX century and modern of the XX century, which he believes have influenced his professional social roles of the researcher, writer and educator, as well as his private everyday life. The famous quotations drawn from the sociological literature (e.g. the Thomas theorem, C.W. Mills’ sociological imagination, C.H. Cooley’s looking-glass self, E. Goffman’s the theatre of everyday life, R. Merton’s metaphor of scholars as pigmies on the shoulders of giants etc.) are accompanied by extensive interpretations by the author, relating them to his personal life-experiences.