Plain
Seneca — The Senator

A wise man would never stop being angry once he started. Every place is packed with vice and crime. More evil happens than punishment can ever fix. People seem locked in a massive competition to see who can be more wicked. Each day brings more eagerness to sin and less shame. Throwing aside all respect for what is good and just, desire rushes wherever it wants to go. Crimes are no longer done in secret — they happen right in front of us. Wickedness has become so common and taken such deep root in everyone's heart that innocence isn't just rare anymore. It doesn't exist at all. Do people break the law one by one, or just a few at a time? No. They rise up everywhere at once, as if responding to some universal signal, to destroy the line between right and wrong.

On Anger, Book 2, Section 9 Book 2 · 19 of 103
Human Nature Doing The Right Thing
Seneca — The Senator Original

The wise man will never cease to be angry, if he once begins, so full is every place of vices and crimes. More evil is done than can be healed by punishment: men seem engaged in a vast race of wickedness. Every day there is greater eagerness to sin, less modesty. Throwing aside all reverence for what is better and more just, lust rushes whithersoever it thinks fit, and crimes are no longer committed by stealth, they take place before our eyes, and wickedness has become so general and gained such a footing in everyone's breast that innocence is no longer rare, but no longer exists. Do men break the law singly, or a few at a time? Nay, they rise in all quarters at once, as though obeying some universal signal, to wipe out the boundaries of right and wrong.

On Anger, Book 2, Section 9 Book 2 · 19 of 103
Seneca — The Senator

They hate successful people and look down on the unfortunate. They resent those in power and crush those beneath them. They chase after every kind of desire. They would destroy everything for a little pleasure or profit. They live like gladiators in training — fighting with the very people they share their lives with. It's like a pack of wild animals, except that beasts are gentle with their own kind and don't attack their own species. But humans tear each other apart and devour one another. They differ from dumb animals in this one way: animals are tame with those who feed them, but human rage attacks the very people who raised them.

On Anger, Book 2, Section 8 Book 2 · 18 of 103
Human Nature Facing Hardship
Seneca — The Senator Original

They hate the fortunate and despise the unfortunate: they grudgingly endure the great, and oppress the small: they are fired by divers lusts: they would wreck everything for the sake of a little pleasure or plunder: they live as though they were in a school of gladiators, fighting with the same people with whom they live: it is like a society of wild beasts, save that beasts are tame with one another, and refrain from biting their own species, whereas men tear one another, and gorge themselves upon one another. They differ from dumb animals in this alone, that the latter are tame with those who feed them, whereas the rage of the former preys on those very persons by whom they were brought up.

On Anger, Book 2, Section 8 Book 2 · 18 of 103
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Ancient philosophy, in plain English.

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