It is not so easy with values ​​and virtues.

It starts with the fact that, to put it simply, there are hot and cold virtues.

The hot core virtues from which all others derive and form a beautiful character include generosity, courage, and warm-heartedness.

At least you can see it that way - if the character traits don't overheat.

The misguided brother of generosity is of course excess, that of courage choleric - this is where the representatives of the cold virtues come into play and call for moderation, prudence, wisdom and: modesty.

Nicholas Mak

Editor in the Feuilleton.

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The dispute over arms deliveries to the Ukraine brought both fronts against each other: Anton Hofreiter from the Greens, who used to be called a sanguine overall, called out for heavy equipment with his face red and looked as if he would like to get through the tank himself the Kremlin gate rattled, Chancellor Scholz sat there pale and hesitated: prudence or cowardice, wisdom or lethargy?

What appears to be a virtue to one, appears to be a defect to another.

The only thing that is certain is that values ​​and virtues also have an eventful history.

When Cardinal Girolamo della Rovere died in 1507, he was buried in a tomb by the sculptor Andrea Sansovino, decorated with personifications of the virtues, modesty being one of them.

Since ancient times, Temperantia, Prudentia, Fortitudo and Lustitia - which can be translated as prudence or modesty, bravery or courage, wisdom and justice - have been considered cardinal virtues, which have nothing to do with cardinals like della Rovere, but with the Latin word "cardo". “, in English door hinge or fulcrum – something in which all other virtues are anchored.

Cool modesty always plays a major role as the counterpart to hot courage.

In Cesare Ripa, whose Atlas of Personifications was to become the most important handbook for late Renaissance and Baroque painters, modesty is represented by a woman who, among other things, carries a mixing vessel for water and wine - an image of exemplary Modestia, moderation , and moderation, the restraint.

The cold virtues become attractive again

In the catechism, in addition to modesty, the cool qualities of gentleness, fidelity and temperance are demanded, which medieval courts demanded to bisceidan;

the Old High German word for a decision from a court that had to be humbly accepted lives on in the bureaucratic German expression that something is “rejected”.

In contrast, modernity, driven by fantasies of expansion, was not so much concerned with modesty: throwing water in someone's wine means spoiling their fun, the more the chimneys smoked and the sales figures skyrocketed, the better.

In a hot society, where everyone is fired with all their might - or, as it is called in banker jargon, the "passion to perform" must be visible - modesty is an insult: the colleague has such a modest one at the pitch performance that we unfortunately have to fire him.