A good citizen's efforts are never wasted. He helps just by being heard and seen. His facial expressions matter. His gestures matter. His quiet determination matters. Even the way he walks matters. Some medicines help us through their smell, not just their taste or touch. Virtue works the same way. Even when it's hidden or far away, it spreads good around it. Virtue might move freely and enjoy its proper rights. Or it might only appear in public when allowed, forced to pull back during storms. It might be unemployed, silent, and stuck in a small space. Or it might be openly displayed. Whatever form virtue takes, it always does good. Do you think there's no value in someone who knows how to rest with dignity? The best plan is to mix leisure with work. When random obstacles or political situations prevent you from living an active life, you can still do this. You are never so cut off from everything that there's no room left for honorable action.
The services of a good citizen are never thrown away: he does good by being heard and seen, by his expression, his gestures, his silent determination, and his very walk. As some remedies benefit us by their smell as well as by their their taste and touch, so virtue even when concealed and at a distance sheds usefulness around. Whether she moves at her ease and enjoys her just rights, or can only appear abroad on sufferance and is forced to shorten sail to the tempest, whether it be unemployed, silent, and pent up in a narrow lodging, or openly displayed, in whatever guise she may appear, she always does good. What? do you think that the example of one who can rest nobly has no value? It is by far the best plan, therefore, to mingle leisure with business, whenever chance impediments or the state of public affairs forbid one's leading an active life: for one is never so cut off from all pursuits as to find no room left for honourable action.