How do you stay decent when the people around you are not?

You remember that their indecency is not yours to carry. They act according to their nature and their understanding — or lack of it. You act according to yours. What harm can another's vice do to you? None, unless you make it your own by imitating it or letting it disturb your reason. The thief does not make you a thief. The liar does not make you a liar. Their corruption touches only themselves. Your task is simpler than you think: to be just where you stand, regardless of who stands beside you. Virtue does not require the cooperation of others. It requires only your will. I have sat in council with flatterers and schemers. I have watched men pursue gain and glory at any cost. Yet none of this obligates me to abandon what I know to be right. Their choices are theirs. Mine are mine. Ask yourself each moment: what does this situation require of me? Not what do they deserve, but what do I owe to my own character? Then do that, and let the rest go. The decency you seek does not come from them. It comes from you.