VIR-III-0049
“I did the right thing in a moment no one will ever know about.”
There was no audience, no credit, no consequence for cutting the corner. You did right anyway, because who you are when no one's watching is who you actually are. The unwitnessed good act is the purest measure of a man. You just passed the test that most people only pass when someone's looking.
Your Practice
- Notice that you did right with nothing to gain. That's the real you.
- Resist the urge to tell anyone. The silence is part of the worth.
- Let the private good build the private foundation of your self-respect.
- Make 'I do right even alone' the standard you never lower.
The Architects
“Virtuous action straightway so disposes a man that he no sooner admires the works of virtue than he strives to emulate those who wrought them.”
Plutarch, Life of Pericles 2, Bernadotte Perrin translation (Loeb Classical Library, 1916)