As I said before, two things make us angry. First, when someone seems to hurt us — I've talked enough about that. Second, when someone seems to treat us unfairly. Let me discuss this now. People think things are unfair for two reasons: either they feel they shouldn't have to suffer them, or they didn't expect to suffer them. We think unexpected things are beneath what we deserve. That's why we get especially upset when things happen that go against our hopes and expectations. And that's why we get irritated over the smallest things at home, and why we assume our friends' thoughtlessness is deliberate cruelty.
There are, as I have stated, two cases which produce anger: first, when we appear to have received an injury, about which enough has been said, and, secondly, when we appear to have been treated unjustly: this must now be discussed. Men think some things unjust because they ought not to suffer them, and some because they did not expect to suffer them: we think what is unexpected is beneath our deserts. Consequently, we are especially excited at what befalls us contrary to our hope and expectation: and this is why we are irritated at the smallest trifles in our own domestic affairs, and why we call our friends' carelessness deliberate injury.