(If I left out your favorite virtue, feel free to add it to the list.)
If you’re really bored, you can rank each virtue on a scale of importance from one to ten. I’m skeptical that anyone would have the patience or self-discipline to do this. But there’s always hope!
I think this is the first thread to which I’ve been the first to reply. Not that that’s a virtue.
For starters, I don’t necessarily consider all those things in the list to be virtues. Ambition and confidence, for example–I think they are responsible for much of the damage that people do to each other. A touch of them may be good to have, but I try to stay away from people who have more than their share of either of these “virtues.”
Caution could be the opposite of excessive ambition and confidence. Excessive caution is cowardice. I’m thinking that without a balance of virtues, we don’t have any virtue.
Then again, I like the Nietzsche quote, from Zarathustra: “I love him who does not want too many virtues. One virtue is more virtue than two, because it is more of a knot for fate to cling to.”
Faith and obedience, in certain situations, can be virtues, I guess. Depends on the object of the faith and obedience. I see a lot of faith and obedience that I think is ill-considered and misplaced, and that doesn’t seem virtuous at all to me. I hope I’m not messing up your thread here right at the start.
I’d say the ones that are most important to me are generosity, open-mindedness, and politeness, in alphabetical order.
Well to answer MrO, according to Aristotle, all virtues, by definition are themselves the middle ground. So while ambition and confidence may seem misplaced. One could simply argue that too much or too little of either is bad, but in moderation both lead us towards a higher place.
To answer the OP though, I’d chime in with Compassion (as different from empathy or kindness), Humility, and Forgiveness.
Why the :rolleyes: next to chastity? You’re exercising chastity when you refuse to cheat on your spouse or when you refrain from engaging in sexual activities that you or your partner consider demeaning. What’s so :rolleyes: -worthy about that?
My lists –
Overrated
Ambition
Charisma
Organization
Most Important
Love
Humility
Forgiveness
Kindness
Fairness
What I wish I had more of
Generosity
Temperance
Bravery
I would add “a sense of relativity” to the list (I’m sure it would be more popular if it could be boiled down to a single word, and even those four words don’t capture my meaning particularly well).
Of the OP’s list, I’ve little use for Stoicism or Chastity.
I’ve always assumed chastity to mean “abstaining from sexual intercourse for purposes other than reproduction” – something most people don’t consider a virtue nowadays.
But if you take it to mean marital fidelity, then it certainly is a virtue.
These are my favorites. As Mr. O pointed out, some of those on the master list are best had in small quantities. I think that within reason and with a few exceptions, you can’t have too much of the below.
Forgiveness
Friendliness
Gentleness
Honesty
Kindness
Love
Loyalty
Patience
Self-Discipline
