#25: On Anger (De Ira)
Quotes that resonate, from ‘How to Keep Your Cool: An Ancient Guide to Anger Management’ by Seneca, selected, translated and introduced by James Romm.
[66]
Just as bodily strength and diligent care of one’s health give no help against plague – which indeed attacks the weak and the vigorous indiscriminately – so anger poses as much risk to high-strung natures as to relaxed and composed ones (and it’s even uglier and more dangerous in the latter, to the degree that it wrecks greater changes in them).
[67]
We will ensure that we not become angry if we put before our eyes all the vices anger gives to and take good measure of them.
[68]
We must accuse and condemn anger, scrutinize its crimes and expose it to the light of day, compare it with the worst evils so that we can see clearly what it is.
[69]
Greed, for example, gets hold of things and piles them up, so that one can better make use of them; but anger squanders things and rarely comes without cost.
[70]
How much more does he lose by getting angry than he lost from the matter that angered him!