Plain
Seneca — The Senator

We should think about how anger itself has hurt so many people. Some get so furious that they burst their blood vessels. Others strain their voices so hard they vomit blood. Some damage their eyesight by forcing too much blood into their eyes. They get sick when the anger finally passes. Nothing leads to madness faster than anger. Many people have stayed trapped in permanent rage. Once they lose their minds, they never get them back. Ajax went mad from anger, and his madness drove him to kill himself. People wild with rage call on heaven to kill their children, to make them poor, to destroy their homes. Yet they swear they're not angry or crazy.

On Anger, Book 2, Section 36 Book 2 · 101 of 103
Calm Your Mind Facing Hardship
Seneca — The Senator Original

We ought rather to consider, how many men anger itself has injured. Some in their excessive heat have burst their veins; some by straining their voices beyond their strength have vomited blood, or have injured their sight by too violently injecting humours into their eyes, and have fallen sick when the fit passed off. No way leads more swiftly to madness: many have, consequently, remained always in the frenzy of anger, and, having once lost their reason, have never recovered it. Ajax was driven mad by anger, and driven to suicide by madness. Men, frantic with rage, call upon heaven to slay their children, to reduce themselves to poverty, and to ruin their houses, and yet declare that they are not either angry or insane.

On Anger, Book 2, Section 36 Book 2 · 101 of 103
Seneca — The Senator

Some angry people, as Sextius points out, have been helped by looking in a mirror. They were shocked by how much their appearance had changed. It was like meeting themselves for the first time — they didn't even recognize who they'd become. But think about this: the mirror only showed a tiny fraction of how hideous anger really makes us. If we could see the mind itself — if it could be displayed through some material — we would be horrified. We'd see how black and stained it looks, how agitated and twisted and swollen. Even now, the mind is quite ugly when we glimpse it through all the barriers of blood and bone and flesh. Imagine if we could see it completely exposed. You might say you don't believe anyone was ever scared out of anger by looking in a mirror. But why not? Because by the time he went to the mirror to change his mind, he had already changed it. To angry people, no face looks better than one that is fierce and savage — the face they want to have.

On Anger, Book 2, Section 36 Book 2 · 100 of 103
Calm Your Mind Knowing Yourself
Seneca — The Senator Original

Some angry people, as Sextius remarks, have been benefited by looking at the glass: they have been struck by so great an alteration in their own appearance: they have been, as it were, brought into their own presence and have not recognized themselves: yet how small a part of the real hideousness of anger did that reflected image in the mirror reproduce? Could the mind be displayed or made to appear through any substance, we should be confounded when we beheld how black and stained, how agitated, distorted, and swollen it looked: even at present it is very ugly when seen through all the screens of blood, bones, and so forth: what would it be, were it displayed uncovered? You say, that you do not believe that any one was ever scared out of anger by a mirror: and why not? Because when he came to the mirror to change his mind, he had changed it already: to angry men no face looks fairer than one that is fierce and savage and such as they wish to look like.

On Anger, Book 2, Section 36 Book 2 · 100 of 103
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Ancient philosophy, in plain English.

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