Temperance is thinking before we act
How do you know what the temperate thing to do is? That is, when does some of a good thing become too much of a good thing? Is it as simple as a list of rules to memorize? One candy bar is good; two candy bars are intemperate? Aristotle says that Temperance is not a matter of […]
Too much of a good thing…is still too much
Have you ever heard someone say that you can’t have too much of a good thing? Well, they’re wrong. A temperate man understands that good things are not made better by excess—they are spoiled by it. Food is a good thing, necessary for life—but consuming an excess is called gluttony, and it not only is […]
Be a Superstar of Temperance
Our fourth virtue is that of Temperance. In some ways, it is the least popular of the virtues – today, the world tells us to pursue our passions, not to regulate them; to be all-in; to hold nothing back. But this is the attitude that produces superstar athletes, rock star musicians, and movie star actors, whose extraordinary […]
Justice requires humility
Yesterday I supposed that to be a just person one must first be honest with themselves and others. Today I’ll add on to it with humility. In a culture that tells you – you are the center of it, humility can be hard to come by and even seen as a weakness. Afterall – you […]
Justice requires honesty
Justice requires honesty – that’s an important part of our honor code. You have to be truthful with yourself and with others. Afterall, the guilty must confess and the innocent never should. To be just is to give others their due – to be fair. This may be a reward or a consequence. It may […]
Let mercy season our demands for justice
Does it ever bother you when someone doesn’t seem to get the justice they deserve? When your teacher gives mercy to a classmate, and lets them off the hook, when you think a just punishment should have been given? William Shakespeare, in The Merchant of Venice, prods us to think differently about mercy, when speaking about […]
The justice, not vengeance, of “an eye for an eye”
One of the most famous passages in the Bible about justice comes in the book of Exodus, when God gives the Israelites the laws that are to govern their nation. Regarding justice for a specific crime, it says: “23 But if there is harm,[a] then you shall pay life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for […]
Justice, under which law?
The third of our cardinal virtues is Justice. Most of us hear the word justice only in the news: the Department of Justice; a justice of the Supreme Court; the criminal justice system, and so on. But what does it mean to be personally just? If we’re not lawyers or politicians, if we’re not officially […]
Fortitude must be for the Good
Can a bad man have fortitude? Can we attribute the virtue of courage to a Nazi soldier willing to risk his life for the cause of exterminating the Jews? Or to an Al-Qaeda terrorist who blows himself up in order to kill scores of Americans whom he hates? Or to a criminal at trial who […]
When courage thrives
Fortitude requires hard and tedious work – it means reading what the text says, and then wondering what it means. It is slowing down to tackle a math problem, looking at all the details of it, or practicing over and over the new language skills – whether it be the French in Lower School or […]
