Letter 1501: Virtue must be practiced with all one's strength — not merely admired from a distance.

Wickedness is already captured by its own depravity; and once captured, it tries to hold itself captive, and strives to maintain itself by a kind of madness. The captive does not cease striving for its own ruin, and therefore labors in vain. To Ammonius the Monk. Concerning the right education of children, and that it is both instructive and profitable. Those who sow into their own children while they are still infants, planting first the teaching concerning divine sovereignty and providence, and second the way of virtue — these will not only be parents, but also prove to be excellent teachers and will receive divine rewards. But those who plant polytheism and the vice that belongs to it, as though offering their children as sacrifices to demons, will receive fitting recompense. To Symmachus. Indeed, concerning the teaching of God's sovereignty and providence, and the manner of virtue, the first principle is this: those who are not only parents but also the best teachers will receive rewards from God. But those who teach their children the multitude of gods and wickedness, as though sacrificing them to demons, will receive the punishment they deserve.