The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out. ---- Thomas Macaulay
Some thirty years ago, I was studying in a public school in New York. One day, Mrs Nanette O'Neill gave an arithmetic test to our class. When the papers were marked she discovered that twelve boys had made exactly the same mistakes throughout the test.
There is nothing really new about cheating in exams. Perhaps that was why Mrs O'Neill didn't even say a word about it. She only asked the twelve boys to remain after class. I was one of the twelve.
Mrs O'Neill asked no questions, and she didn't scold us either. Instead, she wrote on the blackboard the above words by Thomas Macaulay. She then ordered us to copy these words into our exercise-books one hundred times.
I don't know about the other eleven boys. Speaking for myself I can say: it was the most important single lesson of my life. Thirty years after being introduced to Macaulay's words, they still seem to me the best yardstick (准绳), because they give us a way to measure ourselves rather than others
Few of us are asked to make great decisions about nations going to war or armies going to battle. But all of us are called upon daily to make a great many personal decisions. Should the wallet, found in the street, be put into a pocket or turned over to the policeman? Should the extra change received at the store be forgotten or returned ? Nobody will know except you.But you have to live with yourself, and it is always better to live with someone you respect.