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...

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...

John Milton writes in Paradise Lost: Henceforth I learn, that to obey is best, And love with fear the only God; to walk As in his presence; ever to observe His providence; and on him sole depend, Merciful over all...

The word fortitude comes from the Latin fortis, which simply means strength.  It shares an etymology with the word fortress or fort—which is a military stronghold built to defend against attack. Fort McHenry was built between 1798 and 1800, in order...

President Teddy Roosevelt once said that “The longer I live the more I think of the quality of fortitude… men who fall, pick themselves up and stumble on, fall again, and are trying to get back up when they die.”...

We conclude our week on prudence with the story of Joseph in Genesis 46.   After being granted by God the ability to interpret Pharaoh’s dream about the coming years of plentiful harvest followed by severe famine, Joseph prudently advises Pharaoh...

This week we’ve been considering the virtue of Prudence. But what is it that makes someone prudent in the first place? Proverbs 13:16 gives us the answer: “Every prudent man acts with knowledge, but a fool flaunts his folly.”  Prudence,...

Aesop’s fable of the Old Lion and the Fox: An old Lion, whose teeth and claws were so worn that it was not so easy for him to get food as in his younger days, pretended that he was sick....

If prudence is wisdom in practical matters, then is there ever a time not to be prudent? Should we ever cast reason to the wind? C.S. Lewis observes that that genuine prudence requires “a child’s heart, but a grown-up’s head.”  So, for...