> as lemmas

1590 E. Spenser Faerie Queene iii. xii. sig. Oo7 Your vertue selfe her owne reward shall breed.

1603 J. Davies Microcosmos sig. Mm3 Sacred vertue is her owne reward, And Crowns her selfe, in spight of Fortunes Nayes.

1642 Sir T. Browne Religio Medici (new ed.) 87 That vertue is her owne reward, is but a cold principle.

1643 J. Hutchinson Discov. Trecherous Attempts Cavaliers sig. A3 Vertue is its owne reward.

1692 M. Prior Ode Imitation Horace viii. 7 Virtue is her own Reward, With solid Beams and Native Glory bright.

1757 J. Home Douglas iii. i. 35 Amen! and virtue is it's own reward!

1771 T. Smollett Humphry Clinker II. 58 I shall be content with the reflection, That virtue is its own reward.

1835 Reformers' Gaz. 2 May 324 But as virtue has its own reward, so political dishonesty has its own peculiar antidote.

1850 F. E. Smedley Frank Fairlegh xxxviii. 314 Supposing this iniquitous engagement to have been broken off by your exertions, is Virtue to be its own reward?

1920 F. M. Howard Happy Rascals (1922) 18 ‘Virtue's its own reward’, by which I means that we've beat you chaps once more, and that's all the satisfaction we wants.

1978 Observer 10 Dec. 24 It may be fine philosophy to claim that virtue is its own reward, but it is somewhat cold comfort for the virtuous.

1992 Utne Reader Nov. 4/3 If virtue were its own reward, we would all be as rich as the pashas of the Republican Party.