Genuine morality is preserved only in the school of adversity, and a state of continuous prosperity may easily prove a quicksand to virtue.

Standards hold best when keeping them costs something. In easy stretches nothing pushes back, so small compromises pass unnoticed and you never learn what you would actually refuse. Comfort does not corrupt anyone directly; it removes the friction that used to tell you where your edges were. A long run of good fortune can quietly leave you softer than you know.

Rather than wait for hardship to test you, set a small cost on purpose. Keep one promise this week that has become inconvenient to keep, or refuse one easy advantage you could take without anyone noticing. The point is not suffering but knowing, from evidence, where you stand.