The seven deadly sins are used in Christian ethics to illustrate humanity's tendency to sin when certain actions and tendencies are carried to excess. It's said that from these sins come all others.

The list of deadly sins has varied in number and type over time, but the modern seven were the result of Pope Gregory I's AD 590 revision of a list of eight deadly sins by the monk Evagrius Ponticus in the 4th century. In the order used by Pope Gregory and the writer of The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri, they are:

• lust – excessive thoughts or desires of a sexual nature
• gluttony – over-indulgence and over-consumption to the point of waste
• greed – excessive or rapacious desire for wealth, power, and status
• sloth – failure to utilize one's talents and gifts to the point of laziness and indifference
• wrath – uncontrolled and destructive feelings of anger
• envy – resentment of something others have and a desire to deprive them of it
• pride – belief oneself is better than others, failure to acknowledge the greater good, and excessive love of self

There are also seven cardinal virtues which can be considered the flip sides of the sins: chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, kindness, and humility.

For more information

• Seven Deadly Sins (Wikipedia)

See also

• seven deadly sins (anime) - The Netflix anime series with the same name featuring characters that represent the seven deadly sins
• The seven deadly sins in Fullmetal Alchemist.