Let's free ourselves from this evil. Let's clear it from our minds and tear it out by the roots — this passion that grows back whenever even the smallest piece of it finds a place to rest. Don't try to moderate anger. Get rid of it completely. What good is moderation when dealing with an evil habit? We can do this if we just try. Nothing will help more than remembering we are mortal. Let each person say to himself and to others: "Why should we waste our tiny span of life being angry at anyone, as if we were born to live forever? Why should we spend days that could be filled with honorable enjoyment on grieving and torturing others instead?"
Let us be free from this evil, let us clear our minds of it, and extirpate root and branch a passion which grows again wherever the smallest particle of it finds a resting-place. Let us not moderate anger, but get rid of it altogether: what can moderation have to do with an evil habit? We shall succeed in doing this, if only we exert ourselves. Nothing will be of greater service than to bear in mind that we are mortal: let each man say to himself and to his neighbour, “Why should we, as though we were born to live for ever, waste our tiny span of life in declaring anger against any one? why should days, which we might spend in honourable enjoyment, be misapplied in grieving and torturing others?