A caution We should be aware that our emotions and feelings can be elevated into the virtuous or degraded into vices. In the most virtuous persons there is a bit of vice, and in the most vile of persons there is a bit of virtue. Every virtue has a corresponding vice. Although virtue is found in actions that produce good, it is easier than we think to slide down the pole of a virtue into its opposing vice. We must always be on guard, for the pride of ego can easily be the grease on the pole.
Sound virtue is the willingness to do something unwitnessed.
We do not talk about virtuous actions, such actions speak for themselves. Here the virtues in themselves have become an end rather than a means to an end. We can practice virtue just to feel good about ourselves, but then we end up praising ourselves instead of God. We can be very devout, yet relate everything to our own spiritual preferences. It is true that the more we strive to be virtuous the more we flee from vice.