An axiom and its practical corollary in a single line. Two short sentences are locked together as premise and consequence. The premise is the fundamental Stoic DOGMAaxiom of sociability: Οἱ ἄνθρωποι γεγόνασιν ἀλλήλων ἕνεκεν, "human beings are born for one another." From the natural mutual belonging of rational beings Marcus draws not sentimental love but a strict practical fork with respect to the one who errs: ἢ δίδασκε ἢ φέρε — "either teach, or bear."

Teach or bear. The fork is exhaustive. If the neighbour errs from ignorance, it is one's task to set him right by instruction (διδάσκειν); if he cannot be set right (or not by you, or not now), what remains is to bear with him (φέρειν) without anger, since anger at a fellow-member contradicts the very same axiom. A third option — to hate, to retaliate, to turn away — the nature of those born-for-one-another does not provide. The formula recurs in Marcus as a ready instrument: cf. 5.28 (toward the ill-smelling man — "either correct him or bear with him"), 9.11, 11.13, 11.18. The same premise ἀλλήλων ἕνεκεν also stands in 08-56 (where, however, the conclusion runs the other way: another's vice does not harm me). The governing discipline is action: one's stance toward a fellow-member of the common body.