So, we’re here to learn virtue and acquire knowledge.  But, as you might have guessed, it doesn’t happen overnight.  The school year goes until the end of May, so you know it is going to take time and effort.  It...

Well, you survived your first day – well done and welcome back! Yesterday, I told you that your purpose in coming to school is to learn virtue.  But if that’s what this is about, why all the book learning?  Why...

Why are you here?  Yes, I know you’re here because your parents brought you, perhaps even because they made you come against your will.  But that’s why you are physically here.  My question is, why are you here, as in,...

In a few short hours, our first year together will be over.  You are to be congratulated.  Consider just a bit of what you have achieved: You recited great poetry and speeches in front of the entire school, despite your...

Our seventh and final virtue is charity, or love.  Now, you might think it strange that we would consider the two as one and the same virtue—after all, we can love anything, while charity seems less about love than about...

Mon 5/20/2024 8:20 AM Our sixth and penultimate virtue is hope.  It is often misunderstood, and frequently confused with wishful thinking.  Epicurus took a rather dim view of hope when he said, “[d]o not spoil what you have by desiring...

First of all, congratulations on a most excellent performance last night.  I am so very proud of each and every one of you.  This morning, our virtue is Faith.  And last night’s program got me thinking, not just about Faith, but about...

Our fourth virtue is temperance, which is often described as self-control.  Aristotle called temperance the character of a person whose appetites are in harmony with his reason.  Now, if you study American history, you’ll read about the temperance movement, which...

Wed 5/15/2024 11:11 AM Plato said that “[j]ustice in the life and conduct of the State is possible only as first it resides in the hearts and souls of the citizens.”  I might add that justice in the conduct of...

Our second virtue is Prudence.  Adam Smith, in his Theory of Moral Sentiments, wrote: “The prudent man always studies seriously and earnestly to understand whatever he professes to understand, and not merely to persuade other people that he understands it; and...