Window or Mirror?

What is virtue? Reason in practice. - J.J. De Chenier

What is virtue? It is to hold yourself to your fullest development as a person and as a responsible member of the human community. - Arthur Dobrin

When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary. - Thomas Paine

The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world is to be in reality what we would appear to be; and if we observe, we shall find that all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice and experience of them.- Socrates

The goal of this exercise is to relate the basic virtues, simply, in written form – in order to more frequently and fully apply the virtues in daily life – and to drive out character faults on as frequent a basis.

Drawing from the experts quoted above, I can list the things that I clearly believe about the virtues I will list in the following posts:

• To be virtuous one must think about his actions, in advance of them. Good intentions are a necessary precursor to change, but there is no emotional substitute for reason in the definition and improvement of each virtue

• Developing each virtue makes each of us a more responsible member of society. Beyond the societal benefits, we will be happier with ourselves, and will be better able to give to those we love.

• There is no “free lunch” for good virtue. Repeated effort and hard work are necessary to become continuously more virtuous. Improvement requires reflection each evening, and a plan each morning.

• We should endeavor to act like who we are capable of becoming, and to improve that person each day. Our aim must to be honestly and deeply change ourselves (allow God to change us) for the better. Acting like something we are not only slows the process of growth.

The first paragraph in each virtue section is very likely the thought that Benjamin Franklin had on the subject. After the thoughts of Franklin there appears the dictionary definition of the virtue, then commentary, and finally my personal thoughts on each matter.