Life & Wisdom Quote by Ausonius

Ausonius gives you the bluntest possible moral surveillance system: you are always being watched, and the watcher is you. The line doesn’t beg for virtue as a public performance; it treats reputation as the cheap version of ethics. “Though there is no witness” is the tell. He’s not arguing that laws don’t matter, or that society is irrelevant; he’s arguing that the real point of restraint is internal coherence. If you can do something “base” only when the room is empty, you’ve already admitted it’s wrong. The privacy isn’t innocence; it’s opportunity.

The phrasing is almost transactional: “When about to…” makes the moment of decision the battlefield, not the aftermath. Ausonius isn’t writing for saints; he’s writing for people who feel the tug of convenience, the urge to cut a corner, the temptation to rationalize. “Respect thyself” turns morality into self-regard rather than fear of punishment. That’s psychologically shrewd: shame is unreliable, but pride can be recruited.

Context matters. Ausonius lived in a late Roman world where public office, patronage, and social standing were constantly negotiated, and where Christian moral language was rising alongside older civic ideals. The line borrows the Roman obsession with dignitas - the idea that a person’s worth is something you carry, not something you put on for company. It’s a compact reminder that corruption starts long before anyone catches you; it starts the moment you decide you don’t have to live with yourself.