Section 10: Prudence is not compatible with the lack of self-control, but cleverness is

Nor can the same man have prudence and lack self-control; for it has been shown’ that a man is at the same time practically wise, and good in respect of character. Further, a man has prudence not by knowing only but by being able to act; but the person who lacks self-control is unable to act-there is, however, nothing to prevent a clever man from lacking self-control; this is why it is sometimes actually thought that some people have prudence but lack self-control, viz. because cleverness and prudence differ in the way we have described in our first discussions, and are near together in respect of their reasoning, but differ in respect of their purpose-nor yet is the person who lacks self-control like the man who knows and is contemplating a truth, but like the man who is asleep or drunk. And he acts willingly (for he acts in a sense with knowledge both of what he does and of the end to which he does it), but is not wicked, since his purpose is good; so that he is half-wicked. And he is not a criminal; for he does not act of malice aforethought; of the two types of person who lacks self-control the one does not abide by the conclusions of his deliberation, while the excitable man does not deliberate at all. And thus the person who lacks self-control like a city which passes all the right decrees and has good laws, but makes no use of them, as in Anaxandrides’ jesting remark,

The city willed it, that cares nought for laws; but the wicked man is like a city that uses its laws, but has wicked laws to use.

Now self-control and the lack of self-control are concerned with that which is in excess of the state characteristic of most men; for the self-controlled person abides by his resolutions more and the person who lacks self-control less than most men can.

Of the forms of lacking self-control, that of excitable people is more curable than that of those who deliberate but do not abide by their decisions, and those who lack self-control through habituation are more curable than those in whom the lack of self-control is innate; for it is easier to change a habit than to change one’s nature; even habit is hard to change just because it is like nature, as Evenus says:

I say that habit’s but a long practice, friend,
And this becomes men’s nature in the end.

We have now stated what self-control, the lack of self-control, endurance, and softness are, and how these states are related to each other.