All Virtues

This category holds the virtues, the qualities that moral and spiritual traditions name as worth cultivating. The best-known Western set is the seven: the four cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance, inherited from Greek philosophy, and the three theological virtues of faith, hope and love (charity) from Christian teaching. Alongside them stand the contrary or heavenly virtues, each paired against one of the seven deadly sins: humility against pride, charity against greed, chastity against lust, kindness against envy, temperance against gluttony, patience against wrath and diligence against sloth.

Each entry gives a virtue in the terms of the tradition that names it, the reason offered for cultivating it, and its place in that tradition's moral scheme.

The Western scheme groups the virtues in three ways at once: the four cardinal virtues of classical philosophy, the three theological virtues of Christian teaching, and the seven heavenly virtues set against the deadly sins. Some virtues belong to more than one grouping, temperance is both cardinal and a counter to gluttony, charity both theological and a counter to greed, and the entries note where a virtue sits in each.

Each virtue is given with the vice it is set against, where the tradition draws that pairing. The vices themselves are treated in their own category.