Fortitude appears to excel among the virtues. Virtue is concerned with things difficult and good. But fortitude is concerned with difficulty; hence it is the greatest of the virtues. To this we must reply: the idea of virtue consists in good rather than difficulty. The greatness of a virtue is therefore to be measured according to the idea of good rather than that of difficulty.
––Saint Thomas Aquinas, in Josef Pieper, The Human Wisdom of St. Thomas, #354)
