“Of the four cardinal virtues – courage, temperance, justice, and prudence – it is the last, prudence, that the ancient philosophers traditionally placed at the moral apex. They did so because they understood, quite rightly, that without that practical, seemingly rather dull virtue, none of the others could be correctly applied. You have to know when and how to be brave, or self-controlled or fair-minded, in particular situations. Prudence – or what I would prefer to call a good, hearty helping of common sense – shows the way.”
-Lady Margaret Thatcher
