Boethius on the Rewards of Virtue

De consolatio philisophiae, page from an Italian manuscript of 1385, illuminated by Gregorius of Genoa

But it is said, when a man comes to high office, that makes him worthy of honor and respect. Surely such offices do not have the power of planting virtue in the minds of those that hold them, do they? Or removing vices? No: it is rather the opposite which is true. High office will more readily bring wickedness to light than banish it from the heart of one who holds power; and thus we are angry when we see, as we do so often, that high office has devolved upon the most wicked and unworthy of men… But virtue has her own reward, which she confers unstintingly upon he who possesses her.

–Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, De consolatio philosophiae lib. iii, cap. iv (525 CE)(S.H. transl.)