Seneca: It is a speech which ought to be spoken…

Some principles should survive every change of fashion, party, and position: do not use power to indulge yourself; remember the humanity of the people affected by your decisions; make justice more important than applause. We do not need to wait for a mythical golden age to live by them. We need to practice them in ordinary places—at the kitchen table, in a tense meeting, in a comment thread, when no one can force us to be decent. Grand ideals can sound naive until we ask what the alternative has produced. Cynicism is easy, and cruelty often presents itself as realism. But civilization depends on people who will not let every interaction become a contest for dominance. Carry one principle into your day that you would be comfortable defending in front of anyone. Let it govern you even when you have the power to ignore it.