Tocqueville inferred, wryly, "that the drinking population constitutes the majority in your country, and that temperance is somewhat unpopular".
Tocqueville inferred, wryly, "that the drinking population constitutes the majority in your country, and that temperance is somewhat unpopular". In fact, by the time his account was published, in 1835, temperance was growing less unpopular.
It included virtues to which many of us still aspire: control stress ("Be not disturbed at trifles," Franklin wrote); get organized ("Let all of your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time"); and show some temperance ("Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation").
A gun will not educate your children, save the environment or foster temperance.
Keep your mind on the goal, but have temperance and patience.
"In the very torrent, tempest and (as I may say) whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness," he tells the actors as they prepare to stage a Hamlet-tweaked tragedy.
Conduct books circulating in the first half of the 16th Century advised: "Let your nightcap be of scarlet and in your bed lie not too hot nor too cold but in temperance".
"Now you are to go forward," Anthony writes, "now the Red Sea opens to pass you through — now you shall put the ten thousands to flight — I wish I could see you and make you feel my gladness, not only for your sake, personally, but for the cause sake — for temperance and virtue's sake — for woman's sake".
Seek God's will for your life, and walk that path with love and temperance.
But back to the lax logic of libertarians: whatever your position on the supernatural, how on earth can promoting "justice, temperance, prudence and courage" be oppressive or cruel?
