Cleanse the fountain if you would purify the streams. [ A. Bronson Alcott ]

As threshing separates the corn from the chaff, so does affliction purify virtue. [ Bacon ]

As threshing separates the wheat from the chaff, so does affliction purify virtue. [ Robert Burton ]

Passions are like storms which, full of present mischief, serve to purify the atmosphere. [ Ramsay ]

There is no more potent antidote to low sensuality than the adoration of the beautiful. All the higher arts of design are essentially chaste without respect to the object. They purify the thoughts as tragedy purifies the passions. Their accidental effects are not worth consideration, - there are souls to whom even a vestal is not holy. [ Schlegel ]