There are people with soft hearts and others with hard hearts. This difference is often the result of different actions. The first victim of the bad actions we commit is the quality of our heart.
Wickedness never goes unpunished
Happiness lies above all in a pure heart. A heart that has not endured the tumults caused by shame, stinginess, dishonesty, or cruelty. Misbehaving towards our neighbor exposes us to direct reprisals that would be visible if we could instantly analyze the fluctuations in the quality of the heart. Someone who acts maliciously is digging the grave of their own happiness because they enter a kind of happiness that could be described as hellish: only by doing evil can they feel happy. This enjoyment of evil, which often takes the form of a frantic race, ultimately proves to be a trap that snaps shut on its author. It will be too late for them because the evil acts they have committed will take time to be forgiven, and they will henceforth live as a pariah of happiness, ostracized by their own ignorance.
A pure heart is self-sufficient
The quality of the heart conditions all our happiness. It is both the receptacle of it and also the engine of our actions. A heart tainted with greed lives in the turmoil of always wanting to accumulate more because it can never be satisfied with what it has. The same goes for a heart that has given in to lust. Such a heart cannot stay still and will run everywhere looking for human flesh to rub against. All the sorrows of the world result from a neglect of the quality of our heart because a pure heart is not afflicted by any trouble and can contemplate life with fullness and detachment at the same time.
