The wages for the labors of virtue are detachment and knowledge. These
become our friends and advocates in the kingdom of heaven, just as the
passions and ignorance are the advocates for eternal punishment. He then
who seeks the former for the sake of reputation among men and not for
the good in it, will hear from Scripture: ‘You ask and you receive not,
because you ask amiss.’ (Jas. 4:3).
St. Maximus the Confessor, The Ascetic Life and Four Centuries on
Charity.