How much better it would be to notice how small and harmless anger's beginnings really are. You'll see that people react to the same silly things as animals do. Bulls get excited by the color red. Snakes raise their heads at shadows. Bears and lions get angry when you wave a cloth at them. All naturally fierce creatures are scared by tiny things. The same thing happens to people — whether they're restless or lazy types. They get suspicious, sometimes so much that they see small kindnesses as insults. This creates the most common and bitter cause of anger: we get mad at our closest friends for not giving us as much as we expected, or as much as they gave someone else. But there's an easy fix for both problems. Did your friend favor your rival over you? Then enjoy what you have without comparing. A person who feels tortured seeing anyone else better off will never be happy.
How much better is it to observe how trifling, how inoffensive are the first beginnings of anger? You will see that men are subject to the same influences as dumb animals: we are put out by trumpery, futile matters. Bulls are excited by red colour, the asp raises its head at a shadow, bears or lions are irritated at the shaking of a rag, and all creatures who are naturally fierce and wild are alarmed at trifles. The same thing befalls men both of restless and of sluggish disposition; they are seized by suspicions, sometimes to such an extent that they call slight benefits injuries: and these form the most common and certainly the most bitter subject for anger: for we become angry with our dearest friends for having bestowed less upon us than we expected, and less than others have received from them: yet there is a remedy at hand for both these grievances. Has he favoured our rival more than ourselves? then let us enjoy what we have without making any comparisons. A man will never be well off to whom it is a torture to see any one better off than himself.