Virtue is like precious odours,—most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed.

Good qualities show themselves most under pressure. Patience is invisible while nothing is testing it; honesty costs nothing until the truth is expensive; kindness in comfortable conditions is barely distinguishable from good manners. It takes the crushing to get the scent out, which is not an argument for seeking hardship, only a description of when the quality becomes real rather than notional.

Look back at the last time you were squeezed and see what came out. If you were not pleased with it, practise the quality now in a small way, where the cost is low, so that there is something to draw on when the cost is not.