Definition
The cardinal virtues are the four central excellences of character recognized by the Stoics: wisdom, courage, justice, and temperance. Stoic ethics holds that virtue is the only true good and that these four virtues, taken together, describe what it means to live well.
Wisdom is the skill of seeing situations clearly and judging what is truly good or bad. Courage is the strength to act rightly under difficulty or fear. Justice is the disposition to treat others fairly and to fulfill one's social duties. Temperance is the self-restraint that keeps desire and impulse in proportion.
Why it matters
How it works
In Stoic thought the four virtues are not separate compartments but four faces of a single rational character. Wisdom supplies the correct perception; courage, justice, and temperance apply that perception to fear, to other people, and to one's own appetites.
In daily practice, a Stoic uses the virtues as questions. Faced with a decision, they ask what the wise, courageous, just, and temperate response would be. Acting on those answers, repeatedly and across circumstances, gradually builds the stable disposition that the Stoics called good character.