Discourses · Chapter
Against the Quarrelsome and Ferocious explained
Epictetus argues that the wise and good person avoids quarrels and fights, following the example of Socrates.
What happens
Epictetus argues that the wise and good person avoids quarrels and fights, following the example of Socrates. He emphasizes that one's own ruling principle is the only thing within one's power, and that external things like insults or injuries do not harm the true self. The chapter teaches that true good and evil lie in the will (prohairesis), not in externals, and that this understanding leads to peace, love, and freedom from disturbance.
Themes in this chapter
Dichotomy of Control
The chapter emphasizes that only one's own ruling principle is within one's power; externals like insults or injuries are not.
Rationality and Self-Examination
Socrates' example of examining his own opinions and not being disturbed by others' actions illustrates this theme.
Freedom and Slavery
True freedom is achieved by focusing on one's own will and not being enslaved by externals or the opinions of others.
Social Duty and Friendship
The wise person aims to live in a condition conformable to nature and to promote peace and love in family and state.
Characters to notice
- Socrates
Exemplar of avoiding quarrels and enduring provocation, as seen in Xenophon's Symposium and his tolerance of his wife and son.
- Epictetus
The speaker who presents the Stoic teaching on non-fighting and the primacy of the ruling principle.
- Nero
Used as a negative example: a man with Nero's stamp is passionate, resentful, and faultfinding, not a true man.
- Eteocles
Mentioned as an example of how false opinions about power and exile cause enmity even between brothers.
- Polynices
Mentioned alongside Eteocles as an example of how false opinions about power and exile cause enmity even between brothers.
Key passages
“The wise and good man neither himself fights with any person, nor does he allow another, so far as he can prevent it.”
A virtuous person neither engages in quarrels nor permits others to do so, to the extent they can prevent it.
Opening statement of the chapter's central thesis.
“For he remembered well that no man has in his power another man's ruling principle.”
He understood that no one can control another person's fundamental decision-making faculty.
Key Stoic insight about the limits of influence.
“When is a horse wretched? When he is deprived of his natural faculties, not when he cannot crow like a cock, but when he cannot run.”
A horse is miserable when it loses its natural abilities, not when it fails to do something outside its nature.
Analogy to illustrate that human unhappiness comes from losing probity and fidelity, not from lacking external things.
“But if the will being what it ought to be, is the only good; and if the will being such as it ought not to be, is the only evil, where is there any strife, where is there reviling?”
If the only good is a correct will and the only evil a corrupted will, then there is no ground for quarreling or insults.
Core argument that correct understanding of good and evil eliminates conflict.