The fourth of the cardinal virtues has had something of a political disservice done to it. Indeed, Temperance had an entire political movement named after it, at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries.
The virtue of Temperance as suggested by Plato (σωφροσύνη, sophrosyne) gets its name on English from the Latin 'temperantia' and refers more to a habitual disposition of the mind anything else. We might like to think of temperance as a series of chains which binds our appetites and desires to appropriate and sensible levels.
We may want to eat chocolate and ice cream all day long because humans like that which is pleasurable and dislike that which is unpleasant but it would serve us very badly to do this. It would do us well to eat broccoli, brussel sprouts and carrots because those things contain vitamins and minerals which are necessary and good for our health and wellness. There is a place for chocolate and ice cream and the virtue of temperance is the virtue as practiced which informs us of doing things and enjoying things in the right amount, at the right time, in the right way and for the right reasons.
One may choose to think of temperance in a limited sense as applied to a desire for vice goods such as cigarettes and alcohol or other drugs, or even perhaps on the other carnal, sensual, fleshly, and bodily desires of humans rather than rational or spiritual aspects of humans; however even that perhaps doesn't adequately describe the virtue properly.
Temperance is more properly the restraint, self-control, discretion, and maybe abstention, of one's desires, which might very well also include a desire for power, fame, riches, etc. This should be reasonably obvious considering that when we speak of someone losing their temper, what we usually mean is that someone has displayed excessive and unrestrained anger or rage. That doesn't mean to say that being angry of itself is always unwarranted, it is just that the virtue of temperance moderates the self and imposes voluntary self-restraint.
It must be said that Plato considered sophrosyne to be the most important virtue, as it demonstrated the sound-mindedness of the individual. Moreover, it was by exercising the virtue of temperance that the other virtues didn't become monstrous.
Evidently the early church also thought that temperance was a virtue worth pursuing as Paul, Peter, James and Jude all mention various aspects of living self-controlled and upright lives, and the word 'sophrosyne' itself appears three times within the new testament.
That aspect of restraint is important because that may very well change depending upon circumstance. If you are having lunch with someone whose internal moral compass has directed them to be a vegetarian, then it would be a hideous and cruel imposition upon them if you were to demand a steak dinner, or perhaps bacon from a Jewish or Muslim person, or even to go to the pub with someone whom you know is an alcoholic. Temperance apart from looking at the restraint imposed upon one's self, also looks at the benefit of that restraint for the betterment of others.
It is also important to remember that while temperance might invite you to practice restraint upon your own desires, it does not give you permission to harumph at other people who do like and use the things that someone is exercising self-restraint over. The things might very well be bad in your eyes but temperance as a virtue, is itself self-referential and even imposes temperance upon itself.
One of the great ironies of the temperance movement which succeeded in getting the prohibition of alcohol being made into United States' law, is that in doing so it had to be intemperate. In doing so, the movement then moved into the realm of the operation of justice and law.
To look at the virtue from the other side, intemperance can be discovered from the effects of a lack of restraint. While intemperance isn't as immediately expressed as it is with alcohol and doesn't cause one to collapse in a heap in the street, the effects of excessive drug usage are various diseases, the effects of excessive eating are also various diseases, the effects of excessive gambling are poverty and calamity, the effects of excessive speed in a motor car can be a road accident, the effects of excessive spending might be an accumulation of things and accumulation of debt, the effects of an excessive use of power might include societal unrest.
Addendum:
In general when you see protesters out on the stretch it is because they feel that governments have been intemperate and have failed to exercise justice. The protesters in Sydney recently, demonstrated a lack of prudence in going out in a mass unprotected gathering, while also demonstrating a lack of fortitude by not waiting this out, over what they saw was a lack of temperance on the part of the state government in imposing lockdowns, which then caused a lack of justice being exercised.
Whether or not you agree with this is up to you but I personally think that my inconvenience is less valuable than the lives of others. I also think that the protestors in Sydney have shown that they think that their inconvenience is worth more than the lives of others.
Then again, I think that all of the virtues are best expressed when pressed into the service of others because ultimately I think that everyone wins when civic philos is everyone's motivation as opposed to ego driven love.
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