Is virtue a thing remote? I wish to be virtuous, and lo! virtue
is at hand.

Is virtue a thing remote? I wish to be virtuous, and lo! virtue
is at hand.

Often devotion to virtue arises from sated desire.

Often devotion to virtue arises from sated desire.

Virtue is the only true nobility.

Virtue is the only true nobility.

Certainly virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when they
are incensed or crushed.

Certainly virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when they
are incensed or crushed.

The three hardest tasks in the world are neither physical feats nor intellectual achievements, but moral acts: to return love read more

The three hardest tasks in the world are neither physical feats nor intellectual achievements, but moral acts: to return love for hate, to include the excluded, and to say, "I was wrong".

In the approach to virtue there are many steps.
[Lat., In virtute sunt multi adscensus.]

In the approach to virtue there are many steps.
[Lat., In virtute sunt multi adscensus.]

Prosperity discovers vice, adversity discovers virtue.

Prosperity discovers vice, adversity discovers virtue.

The virtues of society are vices of the saint. The terror of reform is the discovery that we must cast read more

The virtues of society are vices of the saint. The terror of reform is the discovery that we must cast away our virtues, or what we have always esteemed such, into the same pit that has consumed our grosser vices.

If we had to seek virtue outside of ourselves, that would assuredly be difficult; but as it is within us, read more

If we had to seek virtue outside of ourselves, that would assuredly be difficult; but as it is within us, it suffices to avoid bad thoughts and to keep our souls turned toward the Lord.