Choosing Nobility in Daily Life

Everyone longs to accomplish something meaningful. Yet most of life is filled with small, everyday tasks that can seem insignificant. Perhaps the real measure is not the task itself, but the spirit with which we approach it. Helen Keller expressed this beautifully:

“I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.”

Even the smallest actions, when carried out with grace and sincerity, can remind us of our true purpose. The Bahá’í writings affirm this noble identity:

“Noble have I created thee, yet thou hast abased thyself. Rise then unto that for which thou wast created.”

The Challenge of Criticism

It is easy to fall into the habit of criticising others. Yet Abraham Lincoln offered wise counsel:

“We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.”

Living nobly is easier when we have role models whose actions embody higher ideals. As ‘Abdu’l-Bahá observed:

“… Spiritual philosophers … ever express their high and noble thoughts in actions.”

Without such examples, we risk sinking to the “lowest common norm.” But leadership teacher John C. Maxwell reminded us that deep within, everyone longs to rise higher:

“Every person has a longing to be significant; to make a contribution; to be a part of something noble and purposeful.”

Choosing a Noble Goal

Noble living requires both effort and intention. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá encouraged:

“… make ye a mighty effort, and choose for yourselves a noble goal.”

Once chosen, the challenge is to remain faithful to that goal, remembering who we truly are. True friends help us in this journey. George Bernard Shaw wrote:

“The only service a friend can really render is to keep up your courage by holding up to you a mirror in which you can see a noble image of yourself.”

Shoghi Effendi explained that the best guidance comes not through words but through the power of example:

“… if the friends become embodiments of virtue and good character, words and arguments will be superfluous.”

True Nobility

Too often we compare ourselves with others, taking pride in their shortcomings. Ernest Hemingway reminded us:

“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.”

This daily decision—to be better than we were yesterday—is the true path of progress. And progress finds its highest expression in service to others. Khalil Gibran wrote:

“Safeguarding the rights of others is the most noble and beautiful end of a human being.”

‘Abdu’l-Bahá gave this vision of noble service:

“… strive that your actions day by day may be beautiful prayers. Turn towards God, and seek always to do that which is right and noble. Enrich the poor, raise the fallen, comfort the sorrowful, bring healing to the sick, reassure the fearful, rescue the oppressed, bring hope to the hopeless, shelter the destitute!”

Aspiration Versus Ambition

Marcus Aurelius, the Roman emperor, distinguished between ambition and aspiration:

“A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.”

To live nobly, we must set our sights on ideals greater than ourselves. Gary Hamel put it simply:

“A noble purpose inspires sacrifice, stimulates innovation and encourages perseverance.”

Such a purpose often means planting seeds whose fruits we may never see. D. Elton Trueblood observed:

“It takes a noble man to plant a seed for a tree that will someday give shade to people he may never meet.”

Awakening Nobility in Others

At times, we may wonder what difference one life can make in a world bent on selfishness. James Russell Lowell offered reassurance:

“Be noble, and the nobleness that lies in other men, sleeping but never dead, will rise in majesty to meet thine own.”

History provides shining examples. Epictetus, born a slave in Rome, rose to become a renowned Stoic philosopher. He taught:

“To accuse others for one's own misfortunes is a sign of want of education; to accuse oneself shows that one's education has begun; to accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one's education is complete.”

For him, nobility meant mastering one’s judgments and actions so completely that external circumstances and the faults of others no longer held sway.

What was wrong with Caligula and why are bad leaders so toxic?

 Caligula: Mad Tyrant or Misunderstood Ruler?

When you think of history’s worst leaders, one name almost always comes up: Caligula. Over the years, films and books have painted him as the ultimate villain—cruel, paranoid, sexually perverse, and hopelessly corrupt. He became emperor in his twenties, and within just a few years, he was assassinated.

It’s easy to see why he’s remembered as the ultimate “bad ruler.” But here’s the twist: many of the most shocking stories about him probably aren’t true.

Take the infamous tale of him making his horse consul. Great story, but ancient sources suggest it never really happened. Same with the rumours about incest with his sister—his enemies never mentioned it at the time, which makes it pretty unlikely. Even his supposed unpopularity has been exaggerated. In reality, it looks like later historians—and Hollywood—added layers of scandal to make him seem even more monstrous.

So, what was really going on with Caligula?

The Medical Mystery

In 2024, I stumbled across a fascinating paper on Google Scholar that tried to answer this question. The researchers weren’t debating his politics—they were trying to diagnose his health.

The leading theory? Epilepsy. Members of the Julian family (to which Caligula belonged) were known to have it, and ancient writers mention he suffered from the “falling sickness” as a child. He would lose consciousness, suffer fevers, and—according to sources—barely sleep more than three hours a night. Combine that with anxiety and erratic moods, and the picture of an unstable young emperor starts to make sense.

But epilepsy wasn’t the only possibility. Another factor could have been alcohol. Romans often sweetened their wine with sapa—a grape syrup boiled in lead pots. That meant every sip contained traces of lead acetate. Modern tests on Roman bones show aristocrats had much higher levels of lead than slaves—because they drank more wine. If Caligula was a heavy drinker, his mental decline may well have been made worse by lead poisoning.

When you put all that together, his bizarre behaviour—sudden mood swings, strange laughter, cruelty, hypersexuality, depression, paranoia—reads less like random madness and more like symptoms of epileptic psychosis, possibly worsened by lead toxicity. Some historians even think he suffered a severe seizure in 37 CE that left him permanently changed.

A Childhood in Trauma

Even before becoming emperor, Caligula’s life was scarred by tragedy. He suffered seizures as a toddler. When he was seven, his father was assassinated. By fourteen, his mother and brothers had been executed by Emperor Tiberius, and his sisters were exiled. Strangely, ancient writers note that he showed little emotion through it all.

By twenty, he was living with Tiberius on Capri—the very man who had destroyed his family. Tiberius himself was painted by historians as a reclusive tyrant, infamous for cruelty and disturbing behaviour. Growing up in that toxic environment almost certainly shaped Caligula’s own brutal reign.

The Bigger Picture

Corrupt emperors like Caligula didn’t just terrorise their inner circles. They poisoned the entire system. Fear trickled down from the palace into every corner of Roman life. Violence, paranoia, and corruption spread like wildfire. Public life became dangerous, politics a death trap, and the very foundations of Roman society began to rot.  Caligula may have been sick, traumatised, and unstable. But he was also emperor—and when absolute power mixes with personal instability, the result can devastate a whole civilisation.

"All men have been created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilisation ... Those virtues that befit his dignity are forbearance, mercy, compassion and loving-kindness towards all the peoples and kindreds of the earth". 

Baháʼí Writings

Siege of Weinsberg

In the winter of 1140, the fortress of Weinsberg in Germany was forced to surrender. King Conrad, who had laid siege to the castle, decreed that the women might leave freely, but only with what they could carry upon their shoulders.

When the gates opened, the king’s soldiers expected them to bear gold, silver, and treasures. Instead, each woman carried her husband or a man of the town upon her back.

Moved by their loyalty and wisdom, the king allowed it. Thus the men of Weinsberg were saved—not by armies or weapons, but by the love and devotion of their wives.

"Faithfulness is the cornerstone of love, without which it cannot endure.” 

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

PS this legend appears to have emerged decades after the actual real siege took place, but it lifts my heart so I include the tale to raise your spirit too!