Most moral virtues, and not just courage, are understood as falling at the mean between two accompanying vices. Aristotle's list may be represented by the following table:
Vice of Deficiency | Virtuous Mean | Vice of Excess | | Cowardice | Courage | Rashness | | Insensibility | Temperance | Intemperance | | Illiberality | Liberality | Prodigality | | Pettiness | Munificence | Vulgarity | | Humble-mindedness | High-mindedness | Vaingloriness | | Want of Ambition | Right Ambition | Over-ambition | | Spiritlessness | Good Temper | Irascibility | | Surliness | Friendly Civility | Obsequiousness | | Ironical Depreciation | Sincerity | Boastfulness | | Boorishness | Wittiness | Buffoonery | | Shamelessness | Modesty | Bashfulness | | Callousness | Just Resentment | Spitefulness |
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