Prudence
Practical wisdom: the virtue of choosing well the means to good ends.
Works to read
- Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, 1719
- Aesop's Fables by Aesop, c. 6th century BCE (Townsend trans. 1867)
- Letters from a Stoic by Seneca, c. 63–65 CE
- Autobiography and Poor Richard's Almanack by Benjamin Franklin, 1732-1790
- The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding, 1749
- The Burke-Paine Debate on the French Revolution by Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine, 1790-1791
- If— by Rudyard Kipling, written c. 1895; published 1910
- United States v. O'Hagan by Supreme Court of the United States, 1997
Passages
From the texts
Thus true practical wisdom and true goodness of character are interdependent; neither is genuinely possible or “completely” present without the other.
— Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics
Verified quotations
To yield to force is an act of necessity, not of will--at the most, an act of prudence. In what sense can it be a duty
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract
He hath also, by reflection on his past follies, acquired a discretion and prudence very uncommon in one of his lively parts
— Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
She had been forced into prudence in her youth, she learned romance as she grew older: the natural sequel of an unnatural beginning
— Jane Austen, Persuasion
'tis much more Prudence to acquit two Persons, tho' actually guilty, than to pass Sentence of Condemnation in one that is virtuous and innocent
— Voltaire, Zadig; or, The Book of Fate
Prudence and circumspection are necessary even to the best of men. They are indeed, as it were, a guard to Virtue, without which she can never be safe
— Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
They will terminate in the adoption of the worst course, which in war is always the most timid, or, if you will, the most prudent. The only true wisdom in a general is determined courage
— Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon's Maxims of War
Passages are verified quotations from the library that use one of these words: prudence, prudent, practical wisdom, counsel. Sentences under “From the texts” are copied word for word from the full texts in this library. Read each in its context on the work's page.