Is Humor a Virtue?

I thoroughly enjoy books about virtues, virtue ethics, the good life, happiness, excellence, character, and the right way for human beings to live.  

For a wonderfully lucid, insightful, witty, sophisticated, and, at times, brilliant account of eighteen virtues, read Professor André Comte-Sponville's 1996 bestseller, A Small Treatise on the Great Virtues: The Uses of Philosophy in Everyday Life.  The virtues discussed in these stylish and penetrating essays are:  Politeness, Fidelity, Prudence, Temperance, Courage, Justice, Generosity, Compassion, Mercy, Gratitude, Humility, Simplicity, Tolerance, Purity, Gentleness, Good Faith, Humor, and Love.  The ideas of many great thinkers about these virtues are are analyzed and discussed in this fine book.  

"I don't believe any more than Spinoza did in the utility of denouncing vice, evil, and sin.  Why always accuse, why always condemn?  That's a sad ethics indeed, for sad people."  The study of virtues shows us at our best, where we succeed in doing good, where we are noble, how we might use practical reasoning, and our highest aspirations as human beings.  

Is humor a virtue?  Think about it.    

A kindly theologian is apt to ask those three traditional and perplexing questions:  "Who are we?  Where do we come from?  Where are we going?"  To which a witty practical man, like Pierre Dac, might reply, "As for me personally, well, I'm me, I've come from home, and that's where I'm headed."
Sometimes, it is best to keep it simple, and have a sense of humor.