INTEMPERANCE. — From the Latin *intemperantia*, meaning lack of moderation, it is in a generic sense the vice opposed to temperance considered as a general virtue and indicates the lack of moderation in human acts. In the proper sense, as the vice opposed by excess to temperance (q.v.) in the strict sense, it is the disordered desire, exceeding—whether in quantity, manner, time, or other respects—the limits established by reason—of pleasures connected with acts necessary for the preservation of the individual and the human species. It therefore chiefly has as its object the sensual pleasures and those of touch and taste. It thus comprises the following vices: gluttony, drunkenness whether from alcohol or drugs, lust, anger, cruelty, pride, curiosity, immodesty, and the like.
In general, sins of intemperance are less grave than spiritual sins, but more disgraceful because they reduce man to the level of a brute, nor do they reveal in themselves that minimum of intellectual light which appears in the latter. The first remedy is to avoid occasions and, in some areas, such as that of lust, even to think about the objects desired; the second is mortification in all its forms, which renders the will vigilant and strong enough to overcome the allurements of the senses.