Ideal and Virtue
Given the complexity of putting ideals into practice, and resolving conflicts between them, it is not uncommon to see them reduced to dogma. One way to avoid this, according to Bernard Crick, is to have ideals that themselves are descriptive of a process, rather than an outcome. His political virtues try to raise the practical habits useful in resolving disputes into ideals of their own. A virtue, in general, is an ideal that one can make a habit.
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Famous quotes containing the words ideal and/or virtue:
“... my whole existence is governed by abstract ideas.... the ideal must be preserved regardless of fact.”
—Mary Corinna Putnam (1842–1906)
“In the intellectual order, the virtue of humility is nothing more nor less than the power of attention.”
—Simone Weil (1909–1943)