Consequently, moral courage is less a single dramatic stand than a thousand quiet refusals to drift. Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics II emphasizes that we become just by doing just acts; the pattern matters more than the occasion. Marcus echoes this humility of scale: act as if today were enough, and let right action be its own reward (Meditations). A steady voice in a tense meeting, a fair assessment when bias would be simpler—these modest decisions are the anvil on which a trustworthy self is struck. [...]
