"The name passive virtues has been given to humility, patience and resignation; and I fear that the phrase has led some to regard these noble qualities as allied to inaction, as lacking energy and determination. Now the truth is that the mind never puts forth greater power over itself than when, in great trials, it yields up calmly its desires, affections and interests to God. There are seasons when to be still demands immeasurably higher strength than to act. Composure is often the highest result of power. Think you it demands no power to calm the stormy elements of passion, to moderate the vehemence of desire, to throw off the load of dejection to suppress every repining thought, when the dearest hopes are withered, and to turn the wounded spirit from dangerous reveries and wasting grief to the quiet discharge of ordinary duties? Is there no power put forth when a man, stripped of his property, of the fruits of a life's labor, quells discontent and gloomy forebodings, and serenely and patiently returns to the tasks which Providence assigns? I doubt not that the all-seeing eye of God sometimes discerns the sublimest human energy under a form and countenance which by their composure and tranquility indicate to the human spectator only passive virtues."   William Ellery Channing.