It doesn’t matter that we had a good reason. Or if it worked out all right in the end. We have to hold ourselves to a high standard, higher than perhaps even the organization itself. And we have to be brave enough to willingly accept the consequences when we fall short of those standards, in fact, calling them out even when nobody notices.

dilemmas and decisions they would find themselves in. “Life is not meaningless for the man who considers certain actions wrong simply because they are wrong, whether or not they violate the law,” he once explained. “This kind of moral code gives a person a focus, a basis on which to conduct himself.”

Do what is right. Do it right now.

The virtue of a person is measured not by his outstanding efforts but by his everyday behavior. —Blaise

Generosity is something we admire. It’s something many of us wish we could be better at. As it happens, there’s only one way to get there, to do that. And it’s the same way one gets better at writing or any other craft: by doing it.

We don’t have to condone what they did. Loyalty does not mean protecting people from the consequences of their actions.

Let’s just focus on doing the good we can do. Let’s forget about credit. Let’s forget about gratitude. We don’t need anyone to appreciate us, to recognize us. We do good because we are good, and everything else is extra.

“Lt. Col. Shunzo Kido turned aside from the prize to save his horse. He heard the low voice of mercy, not the loud acclaim of glory.”

In fact, that was the fate of a leader, he later joked—to earn a bad reputation while doing good things.