Whatever I own, I won't hoard it like a miser or waste it carelessly. I'll think of my truest possessions as the things I've given to people who deserved them. I won't judge my good deeds by how big they are or how many I've done. I'll judge them by how much they meant to the person who received them. I'll never think a gift is too generous if it goes to someone worthy. I won't do things to impress other people. I'll do them because my conscience says they're right. Even when I'm completely alone, I'll act as if all of Rome is watching me.
Whatever I may possess, I will neither hoard it greedily nor squander it recklessly. I will think that I have no possessions so real as those which I have given away to deserving people: I will not reckon benefits by their magnitude or number, or by anything except the value set upon them by the receiver: I never will consider a gift to be a large one if it be bestowed upon a worthy object. I will do nothing because of public opinion, but everything because of conscience: whenever I do anything alone by myself I will believe that the eyes of the Roman people are upon me while I do it.