The seven deadly sins: Want of money, bad health, bad temper, chastity, family ties, knowing that you know things, and believing in the Christian religion.

Virtues That Actually Limit Us

Samuel Butler's list sounds absurd at first—surely chastity and Christian faith aren't "sins" in any normal sense. But that's exactly his point. He's not listing moral failures; he's listing the things that actually limit human freedom and joy in everyday life. Money troubles keep you anxious. Bad health exhausts you. A short temper sabotages your relationships. And then there are the invisible chains: the certainty that you already know things, which closes you off from learning anything new.

What makes this list sting is that Butler includes things we're supposed to value. Family ties are real obligations that bind us, even when they're complicated. Believing firmly in something—whether religion or any rigid ideology—can feel like armor, but it also narrows your world. The bite in his observation is recognizing that virtues and constraints often wear the same face.

The real insight isn't that these are actually sins. It's that Butler understood something modern self-help misses: sometimes the things holding us back aren't character flaws we need to fix, but legitimate tradeoffs of being alive. You can't escape money anxiety, health limitations, or emotional entanglement. You can only see them clearly and decide what they cost you.