Discourses, That We Ought not to Be Angry with the Errors (faults) of Others

Epictetus — The Slave

Should we destroy this robber and this adulterer? No, don't say that. Think about it this way: This person has made mistakes about the most important things in life. He's been deceived and blinded — not in his eyesight that tells white from black, but in his judgment that tells good from bad. Should we destroy him? If you think this way, you'll see how cruel your words are. It's like saying we should destroy a blind and deaf person. The worst harm is losing the most important things. The most important thing in every person is their ability to choose well. When someone loses this ability, why are you angry at them? You shouldn't let another person's bad choices upset your own nature. Feel sorry for them instead. Drop your readiness to take offense and hate. Stop saying what most people say: "These cursed and hateful people." How did you suddenly become so wise? And why are you so irritable?

Epictetus — The Slave Original

Ought not then this robber and this adulterer to be destroyed? By no means say so, but speak rather in this way: This man who has been mistaken and deceived about the most important things, and blinded, not in the faculty of vision which distinguishes white and black, but in the faculty which distinguishes good and bad, should we not destroy him? If you speak thus you will see how inhuman this is which you say, and that it is just as if you would say, Ought we not to destroy this blind and deaf man? But if the greatest harm is the privation of the greatest things, and the greatest thing in every man is the will or choice such as it ought to be, and a man is deprived of this will, why are you also angry with him? Man, you ought not to be affected contrary to nature by the bad things of another. Pity him rather; drop this readiness to be offended and to hate, and these words which the many utter: "These accursed and odious fellows." How have you been made so wise at once? and how are you so peevish?