
Cardinal virtues
WiktionaryText
Noun
cardinal virtues
- The four virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance.
- But whatever is virtuous arises from some one of those four divisions: for it consists either in sagacity and the perception of truth [prudence]; or in the preservation of human society, by giving to every man his due, and by observing the faith of contracts [justice]; or in the greatness and firmness of an elevated and unsubdued mind [fortitude]; or in observing order and regularity in all our words and in all our actions, in which consists moderation and temperance (Cicero, De Officiis).