Anger has the ability to destroy the foundation of who we are, hijacking our emotions and our capacity for reason and, as the Stoic philosopher Epictetus teaches us, drags us down to the level of a wild beast, petty and malignant.
To the Stoics, anger is an emotion that erodes the fabric of who we are, causing us to behave in ways that do not align with our values, morals and beliefs, and in doing so pushes us away from the person we want to be and the life we want to lead. Often this push is towards unethical, destructive and unvirtuous behaviour.
These thinkers from ancient Greece believed the path to happiness and a good life is found through a life of virtue, reason, and behaviour that is deliberate and in alignment with our morality. Negative emotion, of which anger is one, not only prevents this but acts in contrast to it.
When faced with hardship, adversity or the behaviour of others, the Stoics argued that these events should not be permitted to control our emotions and our thoughts. Instead we should practice self-control, detachment and focus on what we can do to improve the situation, whether that be remove ourselves from the source of pain, or work towards rising above it or passing though it with our peace of mind still in tact.
In general the ancient Stoics saw anger as an irrational and destructive emotion, one that has the ability to destroy a life in seconds, and one that pulls us away from living the lives we want through its ability to ambush and control our emotions and actions. As an antidote they prescribe the practices of self control, rational thinking, perspective and the reminder that we only really have control over our thoughts and our actions, and these two things should never be handed over.
Quotes on Anger from Marcus Aurelius:
“Keep this thought handy when you feel a fit of rage coming on – it isn’t manly to be enraged. Rather, gentleness and civility are more human, and therefore manlier. A real man doesn’t give way to anger and discontent, and such a person has strength, courage, and endurance – unlike the angry and complaining. The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to strength.”
– Marcus Aurelius
“Say to yourself in the early morning: I shall meet today ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men. All of these things have come upon them through ignorance of real good and ill… I can neither be harmed by any of them, for no man will involve me in wrong, nor can I be angry with my kinsman or hate him; for we have come into the world to work together.”
– Marcus Aurelius
“How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.”
– Marcus Aurelius
“In the same degree in which a man’s mind is nearer to freedom from all passion, in the same degree also is it nearer to strength.”
– Marcus Aurelius
“The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.”
– Marcus Aurelius
Quotes on Anger from Epictetus:
“When we act pugnaciously, and injuriously, and angrily, and rudely, to what level have we degenerated? To the level of the wild beasts. Well, the fact is that some of us are wild beasts of a larger size, while others are little animals, malignant and petty.”
– Epictetus
“Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him.”
– Epictetus
“You must completely control your desire and shift your avoidance to what lies within your reasoned choice. You must no longer feel anger, resentment, envy, or regret.”
– Epictetus
“If you would cure anger, do not feed it. Say to yourself: ‘I used to be angry every day; then every other day; now only every third or fourth day.’ When you reach thirty days offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the gods.”
– Epictetus
“In the long run, every man will pay the penalty for his own misdeeds.”
– Epictetus
“When you are offended at any man’s fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger.”
– Epictetus
Quotes on Anger from Seneca the Younger:
“The entire world would perish if pity were not to limit anger.”
– Seneca the Younger
“Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it.”
– Seneca the Younger
“Anger is like a ruin, which, in falling upon its victim, breaks itself to pieces.”
– Seneca the Younger
“What is more cruel than anger? What is more affectionate to others than man? Yet what is more savage against them than anger? Mankind is born for mutual assistance, anger for mutual ruin.”
– Seneca the Younger
“How much better to heal than seek revenge from injury. Vengeance wastes a lot of time and exposes you to many more injuries than the first that sparked it. Anger always outlasts hurt. Best to take the opposite course.”
– Seneca the Younger
“The greatest remedy for anger is delay.”
– Seneca the Younger
“If you want to determine the nature of anything, entrust it to time: when the sea is stormy, you can see nothing clearly.”
– Seneca the Younger
“How much better to heal than seek revenge from injury. Vengeance wastes a lot of time and exposes you to many more injuries than the first that sparked it. Anger always outlasts hurt. Best to take the opposite course.”
– Seneca the Younger
“Anger, though concealed, is betrayed by the countenance. That anger is not warrantable which hath seen two suns.”
– Seneca the Younger
