But what if good intentions are the only real good? And what if bad intentions are the only real evil? Then where's the conflict? What would you even fight about? You'd be fighting over things that don't matter to you. And who would you fight with? With people who don't know better — unhappy people who are wrong about what really matters. Socrates remembered this. That's how he managed his household and put up with his very difficult wife and ungrateful son.
But if the will ([Greek: proairesis], the purpose, the intention) 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? about what? about the things which do not concern us? and strife with whom? with the ignorant, the unhappy, with those who are deceived about the chief things? Remembering this Socrates managed his own house and endured a very ill-tempered wife and a foolish (ungrateful?) son.