Tuesday, March 05, 2013

Virtue and fame: strange bedfellows

My observation after 59 years of life is that it is exceedingly rare to find fame and true virtue in the same individual. Fame has a way of stripping away virtue; or perhaps it we should say that those who are willing to do what is necessary to become famous generally are willing to do them because of the absence of virtue in them.

Sometimes people are called virtuous by their admirers when those individual espouse their particular causes, but generally that involves a very flexible "virtue." We are speaking here of true virtue.

We do, however, occasionally find these qualities together in the same person. It is a remarkable occurence, and should be noted when it does happen. Fame almost always engenders pride, and pride strips away virtue.

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