The Sinful Saint and the Saintly Sinner

If you had to choose between the following two circumstances, which would you pick:

A.) Everyone admires and respects you; you are known as friendly and benevolent; you are well praised for your beneficence and sense of good judgment and morality.  Nevertheless, it is all an act.  You know that acting in this way will please many people, however, at your core, you know that if presented with the opportunity to commit a vile act while being able to get away with it without ever getting caught or without even rousing the slightest suspicion, you would do so without hesitation.

B.) Before making a decision about anything in your life, you always ask yourself whether or not the decision is in accordance with good morality.  Nevertheless, you are not the most charismatic person on the surface.  Those who know you, only those very close to you, understand your attempts to live a moral and upright life, but you may often come across as aloof and reticent.  It is very easy for others to assume the worst about you, because your reticence is often misinterpreted as arrogance or haughtiness.

I know which most people would choose.  Most people, myself included, want to believe the best about themselves.  I want to believe that I don't care much about the opinions of others to the extent that they would lead me to stray from a dedication to my principles.  The truth is, however, the choice is not so simple.

I could have written scenarios A and B to be much more distanced from each other and hyperbolically inflated each scenario to make the choice seem even easier (i.e., everyone loves you but you are a horrible person vs. everyone hates you and you are a splendid person).  I tried to avoid that and hopefully made each choice seem a bit more realistic and not as drastic.

It is easy to be moral person and well-liked; it is much more difficult to undertake an inner moral journey and undergo the pain and displeasure of a bad reputation.

I can only hope that if I am indeed on a spiritual path, that I would continue to traverse it regardless of my social standing.  I don't know if I am really strong enough for that.  Would the pressures of wanting to be well-received and well-liked ever conflict with the morality I profess?  I can only ask for Divine Assistance in such a case, for my own will may falter, and my spiritual core, perish.