Short Works · Chapter
Chapter LXVI explained
A brief, axiomatic statement asserting that justice, like straightness, is an absolute and perfect standard.
What happens
A brief, axiomatic statement asserting that justice, like straightness, is an absolute and perfect standard.
Free preview opens on this chapter — companions, themes, and character notes appear beside the text.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book.
- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
This moment is the emotional and philosophical peak where Epictetus forces the reader into a crisis of choice,…
Full beat labels and climax notes unlock in the reader.
Follow the arc while readingThemes in this chapter
- Virtue as the Only Good
The excerpt presents justice as an inherent, perfect quality, analogous to the geometric perfection of straightness, reinforcing the Stoic view of virtue as an absolute good.
Key passages
“As nothing is straighter than that which is straight, so nothing is juster than that which is just.”
Justice is its own perfect and absolute standard, just as a straight line is the definition of straightness itself.
Uses a geometric analogy to define justice as an intrinsic, unexcelled virtue.
