Diplomat’s Virtues
How do you speak truthfully, listen fairly, and keep dialogue possible when you disagree?
Character, one choice at a time
Imitate the Greats
We offer a place to explore the wish to become a better person.
Here you can explore the qualities that shape character: what they mean, how they appear in ordinary life, and what we can learn from people who have practiced them.
Read for curiosity, a fresh perspective, or a useful insight. If an idea speaks to you, you can take it into everyday life—or simply keep reading.
Read, explore, and try an exercise without an account.
A place to understand character
A virtue is a cultivated inner quality that helps us act well. Virtue catalogs bring qualities together around a tradition, an aspiration, or a field of life. You can explore a catalog as a whole or follow a single virtue that interests you.
Understanding the other side
Vice catalogs offer another way to reflect: recognizing patterns that get in the way of living well. Their role is reference and understanding, not a program for practicing vices. Begin with the Seven Deadly Sins, presented with historical context and contemporary commentary.
Read—or practice, if you like
Definitions, examples, distinctions, quotations, and a little humor can make a familiar word newly interesting. Reading is a worthwhile visit in itself. A catalog becomes a program only when you choose to give its virtues regular attention.
A small practice, returned to often
Benjamin Franklin described concentrating on one of thirteen virtues each week and keeping a daily record. His experiment offers a useful starting point: give an intention repeated attention.
Choose one quality
Read its meaning and notice where it matters in your own life.
Try it in an ordinary moment
Ask a better question, acknowledge a mistake, or make room for someone else.
Return with curiosity
Notice what happened. Adjust the practice. Try again.
Our workbook gives one virtue each week, with a daily grid for dots and a separate weekly participation mark. You can pause and return. Choose your personal sequence before starting; using a changed selection requires an explicit restart. Thirteen is not a requirement for My Virtues.
Virtue catalogs to explore and practice
Read every collection freely, or choose a program for regular practice. The examples below offer several starting points; the catalog directory includes every collection.
Healer’s Virtues
Fifteen virtues for helping with honesty, tenderness, and respect for another person’s agency—in professional care and ordinary life.
Parent’s Virtues
Nineteen virtues for warmth, shared delight, thoughtful guidance, and helping a growing person become themselves.
Teacher’s Virtues
Nineteen virtues for welcome, shared discovery, fair opportunity, ethical example, and independent thought.
Minimalist’s Virtues
Thirteen virtues for deliberate use, care and sharing of possessions, without a contest in owning less.
Gardener’s Virtues
Fourteen virtues for patient care, thoughtful effort and regard for living things beyond your plans.
Friend’s Virtues
Seventeen virtues for honest company, shared delight and room to change.
Good Neighbor’s Virtues
Sixteen virtues for shared space, fair limits and room for difference.
Slow Life Virtues
Thirteen virtues for attention, fitting pace and consideration within the time available.
Vice catalogs for reference
These catalogs have no enrollment, scoring, or workbook. They are offered for reflection, not diagnosis.
Seven Deadly Sins
A historical catalog for understanding harmful patterns of character.
Read the reference catalogMake the next step your own
You can keep exploring freely, follow a program of your choice, or create a personal collection from approved virtues.
Follow a named program
Choose a collection for a weekly sequence with a private workbook. Review a program before signing in.
Explore virtue catalogsCreate My Virtues
Choose and arrange your virtues before starting. Once practice begins, the active sequence stays fixed; a changed selection requires a restart. Your collection stays private.
Create My Virtues