We do not place especial value on the possession of a virtue until we notice its total absence in our opponent.

Without courage all other virtues lose their meaning.

...in the absence of will power, the most complete collection of virtues and talents is wholly worthless.

Ability without honor is useless.

For it falls out
That what we have we prize not to the worth
Whiles we enjoy it, but being lacked and lost,
Why, then we rack the value, then we find
The virtue that possession would not show us
While it was ours.

With endless time, nothing is special. With no loss or sacrifice, we can’t appreciate what we have

A man ought not to value himself of his achievements or rare qualities of wit, much less of his riches, virtue or kindred.

Birth means nothing where there is no virtue.

We do not despise all those with vices, but we do despise all those without a single virtue.

Nos vertus ne sont le plus souvent, que des vices déguisés.

We see so much that we in fact see nothing, and we know so much that we no longer possess anything that is our own, that is to say, something we could not have learned, something that arises out of the virtues and errors of our own self

What we have not chosen we cannot consider our merit or our failure.

Without a sense of urgency, desire loses its value.

The enemy of the moment is not as important as our own inner weakness. If this is not mended we are already defeated, though no foreign conqueror stands within our walls.