Well Said: Preaching Purity Instead of Abstinence

From my quote journal.

We err when we preach abstinence to lads and lasses, rather than purity, the full-blooded virtue that honors the beauty of the body by preserving its cleanliness, its youth, for the marriage and the children to which its sexuality is ordained, if God so wills. No one can sing an anthem to a negative: it is like the glory of a flower. It radiates youth and health and a wise innocence; while impurity is old and enfeebled and "knowing" and ignorant.

Anthony Esolen in Magnificat magazine