We've done it, Novatus. We've learned to control our own minds. They either don't feel anger or they're bigger than it. Now let's figure out how to calm other people's anger. We don't just want to be healthy ourselves — we want to heal others too.
We have now succeeded, my Novatus, in properly regulating our own minds: they either do not feel anger or are above it: let us next see how we may soothe the wrath of others, for we do not only wish to be whole, but to heal.
Someone has insulted you? It's probably not worse than what happened to the Stoic philosopher Diogenes. While he was giving a lecture about anger, some rude young man spat right in his face. Diogenes handled it calmly and wisely. "I'm not angry," he said, "but I'm not sure whether I should be angry or not." But our Cato did even better. When he was speaking in court, Lentulus — a man our fathers knew as a troublemaker with a hot temper — spat as much phlegm as he could right on Cato's forehead. Cato just wiped his face and said, "Lentulus, I'll tell everyone in the world that people are wrong when they say you have no nerve."
Some one has offered you an insult? Not a greater one, probably, than was offered to the Stoic philosopher Diogenes, in whose face an insolent young man spat just when he was lecturing upon anger. He bore it mildly and wisely. “I am not angry,” said he, “but I am not sure that I ought not to be angry.” Yet how much better did our Cato behave? When he was pleading, one Lentulus, whom our fathers remember as a demagogue and passionate man, spat all the phlegm he could muster upon his forehead. Cato wiped his face, and said, “Lentulus, I shall declare to all the world that men are mistaken when they say that you are wanting in cheek.”