“Virtue has no master; each one has it in part, according as he chooses it.”Platon · Republica · -375 · 617e
Virtue cannot be inherited or bought; it is chosen, which makes moral responsibility personal.
Platon rejects the idea that virtue is a gift received from teachers, parents, or luck, as other goods are inherited or bought. It cannot be imposed by anyone, because it consists precisely in an inner order each person chooses and maintains through his own judgment. A father can leave his child wealth, but not temperance; a teacher can show the path, but cannot make the pupil's choice for him. That is why moral responsibility is personal and non-transferable.
The card says virtue cannot be received from anyone. Let's go one step further: it cannot even be acquired once and for all. It is a repeated choice, like walking. You do not own temperance the way you own an object in a drawer; you have it only while you exercise it. Someone temperate for years can lose it in a single summer of laziness and anger. So no one is morally "finished", not even the person who chose well yesterday. The useful question is not "am I virtuous?" but "am I choosing now?". And if the choice happens each time, a harder question follows: what exactly makes a choice good?
Why it matters It frees us from excuses: neither the education we received nor our environment can be named masters of our own character.