Basil of Caesarea

The voice of the Lord is not in the weak and dissolute soul but in that which vigorously and powerfully achieves the good.… Magnificence is virtue extraordinarily great. One who performs great actions becomingly … hears himself called magnificent. When the soul is not enslaved by the pride of the flesh but assumes a greatness and dignity proper to it because of its awareness of its attributes received from God, in this soul is the voice of the Lord. Therefore, they who entertain noble thoughts of God, contemplating sublimely the reasons for creation, and being able to comprehend to a certain extent at least the goodness of God's providence, and who besides are unsparing in their expenditures and are munificent in supplying the needs of their brothers, these are the magnificent people in whom the voice of the Lord dwells.… No difficult conditions will grieve the magnificent person; nor, in short, will any suffering greatly trouble him, nor will the sins of paltry and contemptible little people move him, nor the impurity of the flesh humble him. He is almost inaccessible to the humiliating passions, which cannot even look on him because of the loftiness of his mind.… Those, then who give great glory to God, elevate his magnificence.