Human Strength and Weakness Ashten Blain Humanities 20-1 October 12, 2010

1. Human Strength and Weakness Ashten Blain

2. Virtue Virtue is living your life as a good person. To be virtuous means to make yourself be a good person. As a person of virtue, you live to a moral standard, which means that you act the way that you would want to be treated. Also you have ethical principles, which are rules that you decide to live by. “The three hardest tasks in the world are neither physical feats nor intellectual achievements, but moral acts: to return love for hate, to include the excluded, and to say, "I was wrong".” Sydney J Harris (American Journalist) “Virtue does not come from wealth, but…wealth and every good thing which men have…comes from virtue.” Socrates (Classical Greek Philosopher) Definition from hhtp://www.dictionary.reference.com/browse/virtue

4. This picture fit the quote I chose well, because it seems that children often have the easiest time returning love for hate, including the excluded and admitting they were wrong. Children are also a symbol of innocence, a synonym of virtue. The picture looks faded, representing that often total innocence and virtue is a thing of the past for most humans. The picture is bright because virtues are a good quality in human beings - part of the ‘light’ side. The blue writing is symbolic, as blue means trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth – which are all considered virtues. In editing this image, I tried to portray a feeling of days gone by, as well as childhood simplicity.

5. Vice The word vice has many meanings. One of them is an evil habit, or bad or immoral behavior. It can be a certain form of wickedness or sin. It can also mean a flaw or issue in a person’s character. “Vice knows she’s ugly, so puts on her mask.” Benjamin Franklin (Philosopher, Scientist, Printer, Writer, Inventor) “The chains of habit are generally too small to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.” Samuel Johnson (British Author) Definition from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/vice

7. I liked this picture because it was of a mask, like the one I imagined when I read the quote by Benjamin Franklin . The mask symbolizes disguise, which fits in with vice because often vices are things that we do not want others to find out about us. The picture is dark to show that vice is looked upon as a bad quality of the human race. The red embellishment on the mask is played up because the color red is associated with vigor, willpower, rage, anger, leadership, courage, longing, malice, and wrath, which could be qualified as vices or parts of vices. The text is meant to be a little bit creepy looking to give off a feeling of wickedness. When I was playing around with this image, I tried to make it seem like the mask had a character – even though it looks good on the outside, you never know what's hiding behind it.

8. Ambition Ambition is when you want some kind of recognition or to finish something. You want to make things happen for yourself. The effort and desire to reach your goal is the basic meaning of ambition. Ambition is being a go-getter. “Keep away from those who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you believe that you, too, can become great.” Mark Twain (Writer and Lecturer) “Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them and try to follow them.” Louisa May Alcott (American Author) Definition from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ambition

9. The bottom says: “I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and follow them.”

10. This picture was really cute to me. I thought it fit the good attitude and persistence that are part of ambition. I tried to keep it light to give a positive mood to the viewer, and the white writing was meant to do the same thing. The power lines reminded me of the expression “climbing the ladder”, which I think goes well with the quality of determination. The photo was also taken ‘in action’ which I think shows the moving and shaking of driven people. I thought it was neat that to see the cat you would have to look up, and part of the quote is about looking up into the sky.

11. Duty Duty is the tasks you are required to do by either your job, by society, by the law, or by your religion. Duty is sometimes determined by your morals. A sense of duty is the way you feel like you have to meet an obligation. “True happiness is to understand our duties toward God and man; to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence on the future; not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears, but to rest satisfied with that we have, which is abundantly sufficient.” Seneca (Roman Philosopher) “Duty is the most sublime word in our language. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less.” Robert E. Lee (United States Army Officer and Combat Engineer) Definition from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/duty

13. I chose this photo because when I think of duty, I automatically think of our soldiers, doing what they feel is their duty to protect us. I didn’t have to do anything to this photo, minus adding the quote, to this picture, because I feel that this is exactly what duty is. Its not always easy, and its not always happy, but it needs to be done. It takes a hero to do some duties, and where would we be without them? The soldier is crying, giving the image a somber mood. The red writing represents leadership and courage, which I feel that soldiers exhibit daily.