Saint Thomas More: Standing Fast When Virtue Is Punished

Source: en.wikisource.org (quote modernized)

Saint Thomas More:

“It is no great achievement for you children to go to heaven now, because everyone gives you good advice and everyone sets a good example. You see virtue being rewarded and wrongdoing being punished, so you are almost carried up to heaven by the chin.

But if you live in a time when no one will give you good advice and no one will set you a good example, when you see virtue being punished and wrongdoing being rewarded, if you still stand firm and remain faithful to God, even at the risk of your life, then, even if you are only half good, God will count you as completely good.”