On Anger, Book 1, Section 1 — In Plain English

Seneca — The Senator

You can't decide whether this vice is more evil or more disgusting. Other vices can be hidden and nursed in private. But anger shows itself openly. It appears on your face. The stronger it gets, the more clearly it boils over. Haven't you seen how animals give warning signs before they attack? Their whole bodies abandon their usual calm look and stir up their savagery. Boars foam at the mouth and sharpen their teeth on trees. Bulls toss their horns in the air and kick sand with their hooves. Lions growl. Angry snakes puff up their necks. Mad dogs look menacing. There's no animal so naturally hateful and poisonous that doesn't show even more fierceness when anger takes hold. I know that other passions can hardly be hidden either. Lust, fear, and boldness all give signs of their presence. You can spot them coming. No strong passion leaves the face unchanged. So what's the difference between these and anger? The other passions are visible. But anger is unmistakable.

Seneca — The Senator Original

You cannot tell whether this vice is more execrable or more disgusting. Other vices can be concealed and cherished in secret; anger shows itself openly and appears in the countenance, and the greater it is, the more plainly it boils forth. Do you not see how in all animals certain signs appear before they proceed to mischief, and how their entire bodies put off their usual quiet appearance and stir up their ferocity? Boars foam at the mouth and sharpen their teeth by rubbing them against trees, bulls toss their horns in the air and scatter the sand with blows of their feet, lions growl, the necks of enraged snakes swell, mad dogs have a sullen look—there is no animal so hateful and venomous by nature that it does not, when seized by anger, show additional fierceness. I know well that the other passions, can hardly be concealed, and that lust, fear, and boldness give signs of their presence and may be discovered beforehand, for there is no one of the stronger passions that does not affect the countenance: what then is the difference between them and anger? Why, that the other passions are visible, but that this is conspicuous.

Seneca — The Senator

If you want to see that angry people aren't thinking straight, just look at them. We can spot madmen by their appearance — they look bold and threatening, with dark expressions, stern faces, hurried movements, restless hands, strange coloring, and fast, heavy breathing. Angry people look exactly the same. Their eyes blaze and sparkle. Their whole face turns deep red as blood rushes up from their heart. Their lips shake, they clench their teeth, their hair stands up. They breathe hard and make hissing sounds. Their joints crack as they twist around. They groan and bellow and speak in ways you can barely understand. They clap their hands and stomp their feet. Their whole body is wound tight and does all the crazy things that show a disturbed mind. It's an ugly, shocking picture of someone who has lost control of themselves.

Seneca — The Senator Original

That you may know that they whom anger possesses are not sane, look at their appearance; for as there are distinct symptoms which mark madmen, such as a bold and menacing air, a gloomy brow, a stern face, a hurried walk, restless hands, changed colour, quick and strongly-drawn breathing; the signs of angry men, too, are the same: their eyes blaze and sparkle, their whole face is a deep red with the blood which boils up from the bottom of their heart, their lips quiver, their teeth are set, their hair bristles and stands on end, their breath is laboured and hissing; their joints crack as they twist them about, they groan, bellow, and burst into scarcely intelligible talk, they often clap their hands together and stamp on the ground with their feet, and their whole body is highly-strung and plays those tricks which mark a distraught mind, so as to furnish an ugly and shocking picture of self-perversion and excitement.