"Nobody ever wins a fight"

Violence begets violence.

While he did rip out a guys throat, Dalton didn't really win because it made him look bad in front of Doc.

Part of the answer lies in the lyrics to “The Winner” by Bobby Bare. (written by Shel Silverstein)

It's pretentious moral preening from the writers, that's meant to portray Dalton as an enlightened philosopher/warrior -- he'll fight when he must, but he'll hate himself for having to resort to violence and take that stain upon his soul.

(This is where an eyeroll emoji would really come in handy.)

Sorry, but this is nonsense. Violence is never desirable, but it is sometimes necessary, and when it is, one shouldn't beat oneself up over it (no pun intended). If you are in the right, if you have done everything a reasonable person would do to avoid violence, if you are only defending yourself, or defending someone else, and you use only the level of force necessary to neutralize the threat and no more, then I don't believe you have any cause whatsoever to feel guilty, or to feel that you have "failed" in some way.

In seventh grade I was assaulted by a bully, who ran up and hit me in the back. I turned around quickly and punched him in the side of the face. He fell on the ground, and I walked away. I felt good. When I told my dad about it, he was proud of me. The bully never bothered me again. More than half a century later, I still feel good about it. No matter how you look at it, I won that fight.

It’s simple. What he was saying is “pain don’t hurt”. Any questions?

He's being philosophical.