“There are many pointless deaths but there is never a needless suicide.” The author lists ten salient characteristics or “commonalities” delineated from a common-sense point of view. These include the purpose of suicide, its goals, stimuli, stressors, emotions, internal attutudes, cognitive states, action, interpersonal acts and consistency. These conclusions were informed through the field of cosmology, systems theory and personology. Prevention of suicide through education is stressed.