Nothing is noble if it’s done unwillingly or under compulsion. Every noble deed is voluntary.
—Seneca, Moral Letters, 66.16b
You don’t have to do the right thing. You always have the option to be selfish, rude, awful, shortsighted, pedantic, evil, or stupid. In fact, sometimes there are incentives to break bad. Certainly, not every criminal gets caught.
But how does this line of thinking usually work out for people? What’s that life like?
You don’t have to do the right thing, just as you don’t have to do your duty. You get to. You want to.
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman