Plain
Seneca — The Senator

They become enemies to their best friends and dangerous to the people they love most. They ignore laws unless those laws hurt them. The smallest things set them off. They won't listen to advice or help from friends. They use brute force for everything. They're ready to fight with swords or fall on them. The greatest evil of all has taken control of them — one that's worse than any other vice. Other emotions creep into your mind slowly. Anger conquers you suddenly and completely. What's worse, it forces all your other emotions to serve it.

On Anger, Book 2, Section 36 Book 2 · 102 of 103
Human Nature Calm Your Mind
Seneca — The Senator Original

Enemies to their best friends, dangerous to their nearest and dearest, regardless of the laws save where they injure, swayed by the smallest trifles, unwilling to lend their ears to the advice or the services of their friends, they do everything by main force, and are ready either to fight with their swords or to throw themselves upon them, for the greatest of all evils, and one which surpasses all vices, has gained possession of them. Other passions gain a footing in the mind by slow degrees; anger's conquest is sudden and complete, and, moreover, it makes all other passions subservient to itself.

On Anger, Book 2, Section 36 Book 2 · 102 of 103
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
‹ Previous Next ›

Ancient philosophy, in plain English.

About · Support