“Don’t say or do anything ignoble even when you are alone—learn how to feel shame in your own presence more than others’.”
φαῦλον, κἂν μόνος ἦις, μήτε λέξηις μήτ᾿ ἐργάσηι. μάθε δὲ πολὺ μᾶλλον τῶν ἄλλων σεαυτὸν αἰσχύνεσθαι.
Democritus, Ethical Fragments B244 (F97b)
Jesus, that’s almost a Catholic level of guilt to lay on yourself.
Where do you think that the early church got it?
(Maybe not Democritus directly, but there is a lot of Greek philosophy in the early church fathers)
Oh, of course, the influence just really hit me there.
It is amusing that you took it so hard: I was actually reading it as a positive directive…