Personally, I always found the 7 virtues and 7 vices to be fascinating, if not completely accurate.
Before I move on, I’m just going to throw them down. Most of us are familiar with the vices, but fewer are familiar with the virtues:
7 Cardinal Vices:
1. Pride 2. Greed 3. Envy 4. Wrath 5. Sloth 6. Lust 7. Gluttony
7 Complimentary Virtues
1. Humility 2. Charity 3. Satisfaction 4. Patience 5. Diligence 6. Chastity 7. “Abstinence” (although given how we use words today, “Dieting” might be more accurate)
First, there are at least two ways to look at them. One way is boring and oppressing, the other is interesting and uplifting.
The oppressing way, which we might call the naive view, holds that these things are bad or good because they are hated or loved by God. It requires no explanation. Lusting over an attractive person, or even masturbating, is evil simply because God said it was evil. After all, its not hurting anyone if I fantasize about a woman who I see on the other side of the street. Remember, these sins aren’t about what you do, rather they are about what you feel and think. I call it oppressing because we have these very natural human impulses, a desire to follow them, and an external, authoritative command to fight them. It is entirely negative. The only positive thing that comes from it is the doggie biscuit of God’s very conditional award-system. But it denies what it is to be human.
The other way of looking at it has nothing to do with God, and all about the human. I guess this is the “humanistic” view. Humans have these impulses, yes, and it is often very gratifying when we fulfill these impulses. However, by engaging in these impulses, our impulses often get stronger. They form a habit. And if we let ourselves indulge in these impulses too much, they can enslave us. We cannot think about anything else but our impulses. We become a slave to them. And that is why these traits listed as “vices” are “vices:” they destroy our freedom, and destroy our ability to become more excellent human beings.
On this second, humanistic view, we now have a principle by which we can determine what “belongs” in the vice or virtue category. Because of this, we might decide that some or all of these vices and virtues do not belong on the list, and that they ought to be replaced with other virtues and vices.
Many people today dislike the list overall: they see it as oppressive. But I think the reason why people see it as oppressive is because they are only seeing it from the “naive” perspective, the one that essentially idolizes the virtue as something “good in itself” and not “good for the sake of attaining real, human freedom.” But I believe that is a mistake.
Anyway, I intended to start this post by exploring what some excellent virtues and vices would be, especially for my life and the goals I have always set up for myself. But, it is getting late in the morning and it is time to prepare for class. Hopefully I will get to this soon.
Natural Causes 
Well, why can’t someone become a slave to their virtuous impulses as well as their malevolent ones? Why are the “virtues” innately deemed progress towards freedom while the contrary would seem to be destroying such? Isnt slavery to any impulse slavery? That having been said, who even gets to decide what is considered a base “impulse” or “craving” or “desire” versus a “higher intention” or a “more humanist good?” For instance, masterbation or fantasizing about a woman: it might result it, ultimately, more motivation or concentration on work.
continuing on my first post, i suppose one could say that any vice or virtue to an extreme would be a vice in and of itself. I would rather be a moderately slothful person than an obsessively dilligent person. additionally, to me, an ascetic life spent in fervent pursuit of excellence seems like a waste of my precious time on earth.