Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume IV/Manichaean Controversy/On the Morals of the Catholic Church/Chapter 15

Chapter 15.—The Christian Definition of the Four Virtues.

25.&#160; As to virtue leading us to a happy life, I hold virtue to be nothing else than perfect love of God.&#160; For the fourfold division of virtue I regard as taken from four forms of love.&#160; For these four virtues (would that all felt their influence in their minds as they have their names in their mouths!), I should have no hesitation in defining them:&#160; that temperance is love giving itself entirely to that which is loved; fortitude is love readily bearing all things for the sake of the loved object; justice is love serving only the loved object, and therefore ruling rightly; prudence is love distinguishing with sagacity between what hinders it and what helps it.&#160; The object of this love is not anything, but only God, the chief good, the highest wisdom, the perfect harmony.&#160; So we may express the definition thus:&#160; that temperance is love keeping itself entire and incorrupt for God; fortitude is love bearing everything readily for the sake of God; justice is love serving God only, and therefore ruling well all else, as subject to man; prudence is love making a right distinction between what helps it towards God and what might hinder it.