Full Idea
Our four cardinal virtues: courage, compassion, insight and solitude - they would be unbearable to themselves if they hadn't forged an alliance with a cheerful and mischievous vice called 'courtesy'.
Gist of Idea
Courage, compassion, insight, solitude are the virtues, with courtesy a necessary vice
Source
Friedrich Nietzsche (Writings from Late Notebooks [1887], 02[13])
Book Reference
Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'Writings from the Late Notebooks', ed/tr. Bittner,Rüdiger [CUP 2003], p.69
A Reaction
Nietzsche was wonderfully wicked. I struggle (with Aristotle) to see how a naturally social creature can have solitude as a virtue. It is startling to see Nietzsche naming compassion as a virtue, but how ironic is the whole remark?