Letter 1502: Virtue must be practiced with all one's strength — not merely admired from a distance.

On the inner man's warfare. In civil wars, even though the victors are more wretched than the vanquished -- for they are put to shame more than the defeated, precisely insofar as they have inflicted more upon the others -- still, at least, they will get through it, since they are going to be reconciled. But among us, where the war is more grievous than civil war -- for the contest is over a single body, so that those at variance will not be reconciled -- there the one who has done more than the others seems to preen himself, when he ought rather to blush. For punishment is laid up for those who act, or for those who suffer. Flee wickedness, O excellent ones. For it is terrible at unstringing and driving mad those who are devoted to it. But pursue virtue. For it is mighty to make wise and to preserve in a fitting condition those who hold fast to it. Indeed, even through the eyes, which often look upon something gentle and serene, it shows how the mind within has been instilled, full of self-control.

De hominis interioris pugna. Ἐν τοῖς ἐμφυλίοις πολέμοις, εἰ καὶ οἱ νικῶντες τῶν ἡττωμένων εἰσὶν ἀθλιώτεροι· πλέον γὰρ ἐκείνων αἰσχύνονται, δῄπερ ἂν πλείω εἰ τῶν ἄλλων ἐργάσωνται· ἀλλ’ οὖν γε διαλλαγησόμενοι διῄσονται. Ἐν δὲ ἡμῖν ἔνθα ὁ πόλεμος ἀργαλεώτερός ἐστι τοῦ ἐμφυλίου· σώματος γὰρ ἑνός ἐστιν ἅμιλλα, ὡς οὐ διαλλαγησόμενοι διαφέρονται. Ἀλλ’ ἐκεῖνος ἐγκαλλωπίζεσθαι δοκεῖ ὁ πλέον τῶν ἄλλων δράσας, καὶ ἐρυθριᾶν ὀφείλων. Τοῖς γὰρ δρῶσιν ἢ τοῖς πάχουσιν ἡ τιμωρία ἀπόκειται. Φεύγετε, ὦ βέλτιστοι, τὴν κακίαν. Δεινὴ γὰρ ἐκλυτῆσαι καὶ παράφρονας ἐργάσασθαι τοὺς οἰκείους ἐραστάς. Διώκετε δὲ τὴν ἀρετήν. Δεινὴ γὰρ σοφίσαι καὶ ἐν τῇ προσηκούσῃ καταστάσει διατηρῆσαι τοὺς ἀντεχομένους αὐτῆς. Ἡ γε καὶ διὰ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν πολλάκις ἡμερὸν τι καὶ γαληνὸν βλεπόντων δείκνυ-σιν, ὡς ἐνέστακται ἔνδον ὁ νοῦς σωφροσύνης ἀνά-πλεως.