On Anger, Book 3, Section 5 — In Plain English

Seneca — The Senator

You ask me, where is all this leading? I'll tell you. No one should think they're safe from anger. It can turn even gentle, quiet people into savage and violent ones. Just as physical strength and good health won't protect you from a plague that strikes everyone equally, steady and good-natured people are just as likely to get angry as unstable ones. In fact, it's worse when it happens to them — more shameful and more dangerous, because it changes them so completely. Since the first goal is not to get angry, the second is to let go of anger, and the third is to heal anger in others as well as ourselves, I'll explain these in order. First, how to avoid falling into anger. Then, how to free ourselves from it. Finally, how to calm an angry person, soothe their rage, and restore their sanity.

Seneca — The Senator Original

You ask me, whither does all this tend? To prove, I answer, that no one should imagine himself to be safe from anger, seeing that it rouses up even those who are naturally gentle and quiet to commit savage and violent acts. As strength of body and assiduous care of the health avail nothing against a pestilence, which attacks the strong and weak alike, so also steady and good-humoured people are just as liable to attacks of anger as those of unsettled character, and in the case of the former it is both more to be ashamed of and more to be feared, because it makes a greater alteration in their habits. Now as the first thing is not to be angry, the second to lay aside our anger, and the third to be able to heal the anger of others as well as our own, I will set forth first how we may avoid falling into anger; next, how we may set ourselves free from it, and, lastly, how we may restrain an angry man, appease his wrath, and bring him back to his right mind.