In season 7 episode 8 (the whites of his eyes), Patrick Jane said "I hate to talk to you about doing the right thing. Doing it is the easy part. Knowing what it is is tough."
There is nothing difficult when you want to decide whether to do one thing or the other thing as long as those two things don't have any seriously bad effects on anyone else. Let's say you need to give your report to your boss tomorrow. You also need to come for an appointment tomorrow, too. You will know what to do then; make the priority of course. Or if it has to happen at the same time, you can just cancel one of them. You certainly know which one must be cancelled.
It will be very difficult to know the right thing to do if your ego messes up your conscience. And this involves somebody else's life. If you do option A, somebody or you yourself might get hurt. If you do option B, somebody else can be killed but you are safe.
An example of a case is from the series itself. A young mother has to testify against a cruel killer. This cruel killer has already hired a sniper to kill the other witness. That young mother is the last witness to testify. If she testifies at court, that killer is no doubt sentenced to jail for a very long time. But if she goes to court, there is a big possibility that she will be shot by the sniper that the killer has hired.
If she doesn't testify, her baby still has a mother. And the baby's father doesn't have to get depressed of raising a child alone. But the killer will be free.
That young mother is in a difficult situation. But if she has a clear conscience, she will know what the right thing she must do, regardless of the consequences.
I don't have to tell you what she finally chooses to do based on what her clear conscience tells her to. Of course we know the right thing to do in that situation because we are not in her position. It's very easy for us to say to her this: "Please do the right thing."
So, if we are in that young mother's position, same case or different, let's hope that our clear conscience will let us know the right thing to do.
