Temperance: The Most Underrated Virtue

A word with many meanings

Few virtues have suffered more from translation. “Temperance” in English brings to mind the temperance movement and its campaign against alcohol, which makes it sound like a virtue of saying no. “Moderation” sounds lukewarm. “Self control” sounds like a constant struggle.

The Greek sophrosyne is richer. It is built from words meaning “sound” or “safe” and “mind”, and in classical Greek literature it described a whole character: sensible, self possessed, modest, not carried away by passion or pride. Plato devoted an entire dialogue, the Charmides, to defining it, without reaching a final answer.

The Stoics gave it a sharper definition. Temperance is the knowledge of what to choose and what to avoid, especially in the domain of pleasure and desire. Like the other virtues, it is a form of knowledge, not just a feeling of restraint. The temperate person is not someone who wants too much and holds back with effort. It is someone whose wanting has been educated.

Not abstinence

The Stoics were not ascetics in the strict sense. Seneca was very rich and did not give his wealth away. Marcus Aurelius was emperor and lived in palaces. Both wrote about simple living, and both practiced periods of deliberate hardship, but neither thought pleasure itself was bad.

The Stoic position is that pleasure is an indifferent, and in their technical sense, not a good. It can be enjoyed. What it cannot be is the measure of a good life or the master of your decisions. Seneca makes the point in On the Happy Life: the wise person keeps wealth in his house, not in his heart.

So temperance does not mean refusing good food, comfort or rest. It means being able to take them or leave them, and knowing when each is right.

Not the middle way

Temperance is often confused with Aristotle’s doctrine of the mean, the idea that each virtue lies between two vices, as courage lies between cowardice and rashness. The Stoics did not adopt that framework. For them, the right measure is set by reason and by what virtue requires, not by finding the middle between extremes.

The difference matters in practice. On some matters the right amount is zero: a temperate person does not take a small, moderate amount of something that harms them or others. On others, the right amount is a great deal: a temperate person can work very hard on something worthwhile without being intemperate. The question is not “am I in the middle?” but “is this the right measure, given what this thing is actually worth?” We compare the two schools in Stoic virtue vs Aristotle’s golden mean.

Why it is underrated

Courage gets films. Justice gets movements. Wisdom gets quotations. Temperance gets a polite nod, which is a mistake for at least three reasons.

It protects the other virtues. Most failures of justice and courage begin as failures of temperance: wanting money, approval or comfort so much that you cut corners, stay silent or take more than your share.

It is the virtue of freedom. The Stoics often described the intemperate person as a slave, ruled by appetites the way a slave is ruled by a master. Epictetus asks who is free, and answers: the person who lives as he wishes, who cannot be compelled, whose desires are not frustrated. Temperance is what makes that possible.

It is what modern life most tests. The ancient world had banquets and wine. We have feeds designed to be endless, food engineered to override fullness, shopping a tap away and work that never formally ends. Our environment is built to make wanting excessive. Temperance is the virtue that answers it.

Temperance in five areas

Attention

Probably the main field of temperance today. The question is not whether to use the phone, but whether you choose when, or it chooses for you. Signs of intemperance: checking without deciding to, losing hours you did not mean to give, finding it hard to read a long text. Practices: set times for news and messages, remove the apps that pull hardest, leave the phone out of the bedroom.

Food and drink

The original domain of the virtue. The Stoic advice is not a diet but an attitude: eat for health and enjoyment, notice when eating has become a way of managing mood, and keep the occasional banquet a banquet rather than a daily habit. Musonius Rufus, Epictetus’s teacher, gave whole lectures on food, recommending simple meals and warning against making taste the measure of what to eat.

Money and things

Temperance in spending is not stinginess. It is buying what serves you and not what promises to make you someone else. Seneca, quoting Epicurus, says that if you live according to nature you will never be poor, and if you live according to opinion you will never be rich. More in Stoic finance.

Work

Work can be an appetite like any other. The person who cannot stop, who measures their worth by hours and output, who neglects family and health for it, is not showing virtue but its absence. Temperance in work means giving it its due and not more.

Approval

The appetite least visible and hardest to master. Wanting to be liked, admired or seen as right drives many bad decisions. The Stoics returned to it constantly. Marcus Aurelius notes how strange it is that we love ourselves more than others, yet value their opinion of us more than our own. More in how to stop caring what others think.

How to practice temperance

• Notice the wanting. Before acting on a desire, name it. “I want to check my phone.” Often the naming is enough to restore choice.
• Ask what it is worth. Not whether it is pleasant, but what place it deserves in your life. This is wisdom applied to desire.
• Practice small refusals. Skip the second coffee, leave the last episode for tomorrow, walk instead of driving once. Not as punishment, but to keep the capacity alive. More in voluntary discomfort.
• Shape the environment. The temperate person is not someone who resists temptation all day. It is someone who has arranged life so temptation is rarer.
• Enjoy fully when you choose to. Temperance is not grim. A meal chosen and enjoyed is more temperate than a meal eaten while scrolling.