Today we hear less about this trait. It seems to be cornered with the current state of affairs! A virtue is a characteristic or quality that is deemed to be morally good and is valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being. Personal virtues are attributes of the person valued as promoting collective and individual greatness. In other words, it is a behaviour that shows high moral standards. Doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong. The opposite of virtue is vice.
A virtue is a generalised pattern of behaviour that is usually somehow beneficial in terms of its outcome. A vice is one that is instead often harmful to the individual or society at large. Beneficial and harmful needs to be put in relation to certain social goals. Virtue is the quality of being morally good. … At first virtue meant manliness or valour, but over time it settled into the sense of moral excellence. Virtue can also mean excellence in general. One of your virtues might be your generous willingness to help out your friends. Say being sensitive to the needs of others. For some it is sincerity and being truthful. To a few being just is another virtue that they hold in esteem. Still for some it is tolerance and patience. We are all different beings and so naturally there are variations in the virtues par excellence like humility, diligence, charity, kindness. But these virtues build up self, build community, humankind and will build society at large if practised and lived to the full.
Vice must have started out as ambition, relaxation, awareness of one’s good work, or enjoying a good meal. And gradually turned out to be vices… the 7 vices against the seven virtues! It’s all a matter of degree. To stand by your convictions if they are for good of the soul and good of others, you have to pay a price for it. There are different vices that harm and destroy self, families, others and society!
Finding balance is more an internal matter than a superficial allotment of time. You need to know what is most important to you right now, what you need to build on for the future, which tasks or habits are draining your time, energy and attention, and how much recovery time you need.
Sometimes in life we bring upon ourselves suffering because of our convictions. For not being carried away with the crowd. But if we are opportunistic and lack principles then we would have a comfortable life. Everyone will be around you. Will pop you up! But acting by our convictions is costly. You will be alienated. Face rejection from your own and the social community as well. At times even like untouchable left out from social gatherings, etc; it will bring us pain and suffering. But these hard experiences teach us great lessons about life.
Certainly, these experiences become our benefactors. We learn from them so much. They shatter our false ego and mould our character. As in the nature of a virtue, a vice is always hidden inside, they (virtues) teach us how to swim against the current; to get ourselves grounded and rooted with courage and girt. They give courage to make difficult choices, to exclude other possibilities in order to choose the one that suits best, to let go of fearing the disapproval or disappointment of others. They show us that virtue is hard whereas vice is easy and many choose vice with no second thought. Yet, virtue has the ultimate victory and in the end virtue will conquer vice!
