Lives of Virtue
Temper the desires for pleasure and delight.
Moderation is the cardinal virtue that regulates the desires for pleasure. Through the habit of moderation, reason restrains excessive desire and indulgence without rejecting the goodness of pleasant things. True moderation, then, is not simply the suppression of desire, but is a habit by which reason permeates desire itself, so that it may tend toward its proper end and contribute to human happiness. Taken in its most general sense, moderation refers to reason’s regulation of every human act of passion.
For Grades K-2:
The virtue of moderation gives us the strength to enjoy good and pleasant things without wanting too much of them.
For Grades 3-6:
The virtue of moderation gives us the ability to enjoy pleasant things in the right measure, neither indulging our desires excessively nor rejecting the goodness of enjoyment altogether. Moderation does not come about simply by restraint, but by learning to want the right things in the right amount.