On Anger

by Seneca

Other vices affect our judgment, anger affects our sanity: others come in mild attacks and grow unnoticed, but men's minds plunge abruptly into anger. There is no passion that is more frantic, more destructive to its own self; it is arrogant if successful, and frantic if it fails. Even when defeated it does not grow weary, but if chance places its foe beyond its reach, it turns its teeth against itself. Its intensity is in no way regulated by its origin: for it rises to the greatest heights from the most trivial beginnings.” (III, i) “While you are angry, you ought not to be allowed to do anything. "Why?" do you ask? Because when you are angry there is nothing that you do not wish to be allowed to do.” (III, xii)

how deep reflections on the nature of this great vice! However, there is an optimistic tune : Anger is not considered undefeatable, as one may think nowadays. Seneca believes that we can defeat it - and so do I !

Every one when he calls himself innocent looks rather to external witnesses than to his own conscience.

When a man is wandering about our fields because he has lost his way, it is better to place him on the right path than to drive him away.

Nothing becomes one who inflicts punishment less than anger, because the punishment has all the more power to work reformation if the sentence be pronounced with deliberate judgment.

This is why Socrates said to the slave, "I would strike you, were I not angry." He put off the correction of the slave to a calmer season; at the moment, he corrected himself. Who can boast that he has his passions under control, when Socrates did not dare to trust himself to his anger?

"Anger is necessary to enable us to punish." What? Do you think that the law is angry with men whom it does not know, whom it has never seen, who it hopes will never exist? We ought, therefore, to adopt the law's frame of mind, which does not become angry, but merely defines offences: for, if it is right for a good man to be angry at wicked crimes, it will also be right for him to be moved with envy at the prosperity of wicked men: what, indeed, is more scandalous than that in some cases the very men, for whose deserts no fortune could be found bad enough, should flourish and actually be the spoiled children of success? Yet he will see their affluence without

here is a typical Stoic advice: Self Control. Think and use your Mind instead of your impulse. Make your feelings SLAVES f your mind.

What then? when the wise man is dealing with something of this kind, will his mind not be affected by it and become excited beyond its usual wont?" I admit that it will: he will experience a slight and trifling emotion; for, as Zeno says, "Even in the mind of the wise man, a scar remains after the wound is quite healed." He will, therefore, feel certain hints and semblances of passions; but he will be free from the passions themselves.

Great words from a really wise man ! I have to remind this to myself every time...

Aristotle says that "certain passions, if one makes a proper use of them, act as arms ": which would be true if, like weapons of war, they could be taken up or laid aside at the pleasure of their wielder. These arms, which Aristotle assigns to virtue, fight of their own accord, do not wait to be seized by the hand, and possess a man instead of being possessed by him. We have no need of external weapons, nature has equipped us sufficiently by

I repeat with Seneca: "these arms (the passions), which Aristotle assigns to virtue, fight of their own accord ...and possess a man instead of being possessed by him" !!!

Passion soon cools, whereas reason is always consistent: yet even in cases where anger has continued to burn, it often happens that although there may be many who deserve to die, yet after the death of two or three it ceases to slay. Its first onset is fierce, just as the teeth of snakes when first roused from their lair are venomous, but become harmless after repeated bites have exhausted their poison.

reason wishes to give a just decision; anger wishes its decision to be thought just: reason looks no further than the matter in hand; anger is excited by empty matters hovering on the outskirts of the case: it is irritated by anything approaching to a confident demeanour, a loud voice, an unrestrained speech, dainty apparel, high-flown pleading, or popularity with the public.

Those, too, whom he wishes to make examples of the ill success of wickedness, he executes publicly, not merely in order that they themselves may die, but that by dying they may deter others from doing likewise.

The sword of justice is ill-placed in the hands of an angry man.

On the other hand, to be constantly irritated seems to me to be the part of a languid and unhappy mind, conscious of its own feebleness, like folk with diseased bodies covered with sores, who cry out at the lightest touch. Anger, therefore, is a vice which for the most part affects women and children.

that foul and hateful saying, " Let them hate me, provided they fear me,"

The question before us is whether anger arises from deliberate choice or from impulse,

Our (the Stoics') opinion is, that anger can venture upon nothing by itself, without the approval of mind: for to conceive the idea of a wrong having been done, to long to avenge it, and to join the two propositions, that we ought not to have been injured and that it is our duty to avenge our injuries, cannot belong to a mere impulse which is excited without our consent.

virtue will never be guilty of imitating vice while she is repressing it; she considers anger to deserve punishment for itself, since it often is even more criminal than the faults with which it is angry.

sorrow is the companion of anger, and all anger ends in sorrow, either from remorse or from failure.

To avoid being angry with individuals, you must pardon the whole mass, you must grant forgiveness to the entire human race.

What is it that puts a stop to the wise man's anger? It is the number of sinners. He perceives how unjust and how dangerous it is to be angry with vices which all men share.

The wise man will not be angry with sinners. Why not? Because he knows that no one is born wise, but becomes so: he knows that very few wise men are

When a man's ship leaks freely through its opened seams, does he become angry with the sailors or the ship itself? No; instead of that, he tries to remedy it: he shuts out some water, bales out some other, closes all the holes that he can see, and by ceaseless labour counteracts those which are out of sight and which let water into the hold;

"He must fear many, whom so many fear."

It is not possible," says he, " to remove anger altogether from the mind, nor does human nature admit of it."

Yet there is nothing so hard and difficult that the mind of man cannot overcome it, and with which unremitting study will not render him familiar, nor are there any passions so fierce and independent that they cannot be tamed by discipline.

The men whom I have just mentioned gain either no reward or one that is unworthy of their unwearied

Nor is the path to virtue steep and rough, as some think it to be: it may be reached on level ground. This is no untrue tale which I come to tell you: the road to happiness is easy; do you only enter upon it with good luck and the good help of the gods themselves.

let it be got rid of altogether; there is nothing to be gained by it.

"What? do not circumstances arise which provoke us to anger?" Yes: but at those times above all others we ought to choke down our wrath.

the eager and self-destructive violence of anger does not grow up by slow degrees, but reaches its full height as soon as it begins.

We shall succeed in avoiding anger, if from time to time we lay before our minds all the vices connected with anger, and estimate it at its real value: it must be prosecuted before us and convicted: its evils must be thoroughly investigated and exposed.

Anger brings grief to a father, divorce to a husband, hatred to a magistrate, failure to a candidate for office.

Nothing is more dangerous than jealousy: it is produced by anger.

It does not so much matter how an injury is done, as how it is borne;

If you want to find out the truth about anything, commit the task to time: nothing can be accurately

discerned at a time of disturbance.

Fight hard with yourself and if you cannot conquer anger, do not let it conquer you: you have begun to get the better of it if it does not show itself, if it is not given vent.

Our inward thoughts gradually become influenced by our outward demeanour. With Socrates it was a sign of anger when he lowered his voice, and became sparing of speech; it was evident at such times that he was exercising restraint over himself.

that even the anger which arises from unheard of outrages can be concealed, and forced into using language which is the very reverse of its meaning.

the only way to alleviate great evils is to endure them and to submit to do what they compel.

What, then, can be the reason that they are not distressed out of doors by sights which would shock them in their own home, unless it be that their temper is placid and long-suffering in one case, sulky and fault-finding in the other?

The spirit ought to be brought up for examination daily. It was the custom of Sextius when the day was over, and

he had betaken himself to rest, to inquire of his spirit: "What bad habit of yours have you cured to-day? what vice have you checked? in what respect are you better?" Anger will cease, and become more gentle, if it knows that every day it will have to appear before the judgment seat.

how sweet is the sleep which follows this self-examination? how calm, how sound, and careless is it when our spirit has either received praise or reprimand, and when our secret inquisit...

You reprimanded that man with more freedom than you ought, and consequently you have offended him instead of amending his ways: in dealing with other cases of the kind, you should look carefully, not only to the truth of what you say, but also whether the person to whom you speak

can bear to be told the truth."

avoid feasting with low people. Those who are not modest even when sober become much more recklessly impudent after drinking.

Be prepared to submit to much.

why should days, which we might spend in honourable enjoyment, be misapplied in grieving and torturing others?

The time which you have marked for the death of another perhaps includes your own."