Do you get angry at young children who don't know right from wrong yet? Of course not. Well, being human is an even better excuse than being a child. We're all born with minds that can go wrong just like our bodies can get sick. We're not stupid or slow — we just use our intelligence badly and teach each other bad habits by example. If someone follows others down the wrong path, you can hardly blame them for getting lost on a road that was already there. A general might punish one deserter harshly, but if the whole army runs away, he has to forgive them all. So what stops a wise person from getting angry? The sheer number of people doing wrong. He realizes how unfair and dangerous it is to rage against faults that everyone shares.
Does any one become angry with children, who are too young to comprehend distinctions? Yet, to be a human being is a greater and a better excuse than to be a child. Thus are we born, as creatures liable to as many disorders of the mind as of the body; not dull and slow-witted, but making a bad use of our keenness of wit, and leading one another into vice by our example. He who follows others who have started before him on the wrong road is surely excusable for having wandered on[6] the highway. A general's severity may be shown in the case of individual deserters; but where a whole army deserts, it must needs be pardoned. What is it that puts a stop to the wise man's anger? It is the number of sinners. He perceives how unjust and how dangerous it is to be angry with vices which all men share.