The angry person is acutely sensitive to all they are owed by the world, and blind to all they have received. If over-optimistic expectations are one of the main causes of anger, then the cure is to lower our expectations, to try to bring them more in line with reality, so that we’re not constantly feeling let down by the world. The Stoic tries to see the world as it really is, rather than demanding that it fits their expectations. They practise reminding themselves what this world is like, and what we can expect to encounter in it. Seneca writes that the wise person ‘will ensure that none of
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