Cardinal and Theological Virtues

Prudence is the ability to govern and discipline oneself by the use of reason. It is classically considered to be a virtue, and in particular one of the four Cardinal virtues .... The word comes from Old French prudence , from Latin prudentia . It is often associated with wisdom, insight, and knowledge. In this case, the virtue is the ability to judge between virtuous and vicious actions, not only in a general sense, but with regard to appropriate actions at a given time and place. Although prudence itself does not perform any actions, and is concerned solely with knowledge, all virtues had to be regulated by it. Distinguishing when acts are courageous, as opposed to reckless or cowardly, for instance, is an act of prudence, and for this reason it is classified as a cardinal virtue.
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Courage is the ability to confront fear, pain, danger, uncertainty, or intimidation. Courage is acting in spite of fear. "Physical courage" is courage in the face of physical... pain, hardship, death, or threat of death, while "moral courage" is the ability to act rightly in the face of popular opposition, shame, scandal, or discouragement. As a [desirable] quality, courage is discussed broadly in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, where its vice of shortage is cowardice and its vice of excess is recklessness. 'live life not without fear, but with gallantry against it' : Christian L J Silver In Roman Catholicism, courage is referred to as "Fortitude" as one of the four cardinal virtues, along with prudence, justice, and temperance. This is well expressed by Maya Angelou: Courage is the most important of the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently.
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