Plain
Seneca — The Senator

You might debate about other emotions, but anger definitely looks the worst. I've described what an angry person looks like in my earlier books. He looks sharp and tense. Sometimes he's pale because his blood rushes inward. Other times all the heat in his body rushes to his face, making it red as if it's stained with blood. His eyes dart around wildly, bulging from his head. Or they lock into one fixed, unblinking stare. Then there are his teeth — he grinds them against each other as if he wants to eat someone. It sounds exactly like a wild boar sharpening its tusks. His joints crack. He wrings his hands without thinking. He slaps his own chest over and over. His breathing is quick and he sighs deeply. His whole body sways. His speech comes out in choppy, broken pieces. His lips tremble. Sometimes he presses them tight together and hisses curses through them.

On Anger, Book 3, Section 4 Book 3 · 13 of 121
Facing Hardship Human Nature
Seneca — The Senator Original

There may be some doubt about the others, but at any rate no passion has a worse look. We have described the angry man’s appearance in our former books, how sharp and keen he looks, at one time pale as his blood is driven inwards and backwards, at another with all the heat and fire of his body directed to his face, making it reddish-coloured as if stained with blood, his eyes now restless and starting out of his head, now set motionless in one fixed gaze. Add to this his teeth, which gnash against one another, as though he wished to eat somebody, with exactly the sound of a wild boar sharpening his tusks: add also the cracking of his joints, the involuntary wringing of his hands, the frequent slaps he deals himself on the chest, his hurried breathing and deep-drawn sighs, his reeling body, his abrupt broken speech, and his trembling lips, which sometimes he draws tight as he hisses some curse through them.

On Anger, Book 3, Section 4 Book 3 · 13 of 121
Seneca — The Senator

Some people might fool themselves into thinking anger can be useful in certain situations. We need to show them what anger really is — wild and insane madness. Let's give anger back all the things that belong to it: torture racks, ropes, dungeons, and crosses. Fires lit around buried bodies. Hooks that drag both the living and the dead. Every kind of chain and punishment. Cut-off limbs, branded foreheads, pits full of wild animals. Picture anger standing among all these tools of hers, growling in a way that fills you with dread. She is more horrible than any of the methods she uses to unleash her rage.

On Anger, Book 3, Section 3 Book 3 · 12 of 121
Facing Hardship Calm Your Mind
Seneca — The Senator Original

Lest it should delude any one into thinking that on certain occasions and in certain positions it may be useful, we must show its unbridled and frenzied madness, we must restore to it its attributes, the rack, the cord, the dungeon, and the cross, the fires lighted round men’s buried bodies, the hook[1] that drags both living men and corpses, the different kinds of fetters, and of punishments, the mutilations of limbs, the branding of the forehead, the dens of savage beasts. Anger should be represented as standing among these her instruments, growling in an ominous and terrible fashion, herself more shocking than any of the means by which she gives vent to her fury.

On Anger, Book 3, Section 3 Book 3 · 12 of 121
‹ Previous Next ›

Ancient philosophy, in plain English.

About · Support