On Temperance

Confronting such tyranny is often equally imprudent especially when predicated upon fear. Still, levelheaded resistance to tyranny is essential. At such a time, temperance is the moral virtue that brands our best leaders.

 

The moral virtue of temperance restrains the passions of ambition and pleasure. It places intellect and reason above impulsiveness setting limits in order to attain that which is honorable. It is the cardinal virtue that places noble ideas and wholesome values higher than the interests of the struggle itself.

 

Understood in the proper context of temperance, a good victory is not a matter of winning a contest. It is instead a function of the goodness proposed, advanced and secured.

 

Temperance is not compromise. Temperance suggests leaders should not just play to their strengths and inclinations. Their personal desires and appetites should be restrained when necessary for a more desirable greater good.

 

Words like “moderation” and “sobriety” are often associated with the virtue of temperance. At a time when some see a crisis as an opportunity for gain, the eye of the honorable leader is always on the sacred prize of liberty.