The second reason that patient endurance of objectionable difference is the principal act of tolerance follows from the simple facts of relative difficulty. Patiently enduring what one finds objectionable is far more difficult than abandoning one9s objection and responding with indifference or acceptance.7 No doubt the truly tolerant will choose this endurance and execute this act with the ease of habit that distinguishes the virtuous, and yet the difficulty that they must transcend in order to will in this way, acquire this virtue, and secure this ease is indeed substantial. It is precisely this substantial difficulty that picks out patient endurance as the principal act of the truly tolerant.