“Just that you do the right thing. The rest doesn't matter.”Marcus Aurelius · Gânduri către sine · 180 · Cartea XII, 17
Before any act or word, two questions: is it right and is it true; nothing else counts.
In his Meditations, the emperor reduces ethics to a two-question test applied before every action. The mechanism is Stoic: the only thing you control is your present choice, not its outcome, so judgment must fall on the act, not the consequences. A clerk who signs an unjust order because the boss demands it fails the test, even if it saves himself. The simple test cuts through the complicated calculus of advantage.
Why it matters A practical test for work decisions: before sending a report or signing something, two questions — is it right, is it true — spare many regrettable compromises.