The Discourses of Epictetus, tr. by P.E Matheson, , at sacred-
texts.com The good and noble man does not contend with any one,
and to the best of his power does not suffer others to contend.
We have an illustration of this, as of other qualities, set out
for us in the life of Socrates, who not only avoided contention
himself on all occasions, but tried to prevent the contentions
of others. Look at the Symposium of Xenophon and see how many
contentions he has reconciled, and again how patient he was with
Thrasymachus, with Polus, with Callicles, and how patient always
with his wife, and with his son, when his son tried to convict
him of fallacious arguments. For he remembered to hold fast the
truth that no man is master of another's Governing Principle.
Therefore he wished to do nothing that was not his own. What
does that mean? Not to move other people to act naturally, for
that is not his to do: but to let others act for themselves, as
they think fit, and himself none the less to live and spend his
days in ac