Disputation XXII: On the Vices Contrary to Prudence

The higher seat in which a virtue is placed, and the more virtues it presides over, the more frequently is it assailed by the more common vices; wherefore Prudence, which is set over the other virtues for directing them to the mark in the citadel of the mind, is assailed by a very great troop of vices.

But the vices opposed to the virtues standing in the mean are of two kinds: some from defect; others from excess. The vices from defect of prudence, opposed to it, are four: Precipitation, Inconsideration, Inconstancy, Negligence.

The sins by excess opposed to prudence, which indeed bear before themselves a false species of prudence, are six: the Prudence of the flesh, Astuteness, Guile, Fraud, Solicitude for temporal things, Solicitude for things to come: All these are under the genus Imprudence, contrary to right discretion, which belongs to Prudence; of all these we shall inquire briefly.