On Modesty

Tertullian (155–240)

VII. On Modesty.

[Translated by the Rev. S. Thelwall.]

Modesty, the flower of manners, the honour of our bodies, the grace of the sexes, the integrity of the blood, the guarantee of our race, the basis of sanctity, the pre-indication of every. good disposition; rare though it is, and not easily perfected, and scarce ever retained in perpetuity, will yet up to a certain point linger in the world, if nature shall have laid the preliminary groundwork of it, discipline persuaded to it, censorial rigour curbed its excesses-on the hypothesis, that is, that every mental good quality is the result either of birth, or else of training, or else of external compulsion.

See also

• More works by Tertullian

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