Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 908

So soon as he had composed his thoughts, he took his sword; “Fortune,” says he, “I have hitherto fought for my country’s liberty, and for my own, and only that I might live free among freemen; but the cause is now lost, and Cato safe.” With that word he cast himself upon his sword; and after the physicians that pressed in upon him had bound up his wound, he tore it up again, and expired with the same greatness of soul that he lived.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 612

In the choice of the persons we have to do withal, we should see that they be worth our while; in the choice of our business, we are to consult nature, and follow our inclinations. He that gives sober advice to a witty droll must look to have every thing turned into ridicule. “As if you philosophers,” says Marcellinus, “did not love your whores and your guts as well as other people:” and then he tells you of such and such that were taken in the manner.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 74

Seneca did not bleed so freely, his spirits being wasted with age and a thin diet; so that he was forced to cut the veins of his thighs and elsewhere, to hasten his dispatch. When he was far spent, and almost sinking under his torments, he desired his wife to remove into another chamber, lest the agonies of the one might work upon the courage of the other.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1323

It were endless to run over all those ridiculous passions that are moved about meats and drinks, and the matter of our luxury; nay, about words, looks, actions, jealousies, mistakes, which are all of them as contemptible fooleries as those very baubles that children scratch and cry for. There is nothing great or serious in all that which we keep such a clutter about; the madness of it is, that we set too great a value upon trifles.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 644

It is the edge and temper of the blade that makes a good sword, not the richness of the scabbard: and so it is not money or possessions, that makes a man considerable, but his virtue.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1507

This _clemency_ it was that secured him in his greatness, and ingratiated him to the people, though he laid his hand upon the government before they had thoroughly submitted to the yoke; and this clemency it was that made his _name famous_ to _posterity_. This is it that makes us reckon him _divine_ without the authority of an _apotheosis_.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 778

Nay, we are so delicate, that we must be told when we are to eat or drink; when we are hungry or weary; and we cherish some vices as proofs and arguments of our happiness. The most miserable mortals are they that deliver themselves up to their palates, or to their lusts: the pleasure is short and turns presently nauseous, and the end of it is either shame or repentance. It is a brutal entertainment, and unworthy of a man, to place his felicity in the service of his senses.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1328

Nay, there are that will complain of “foul weather, a raging sea, a biting winter,” as if it were expressly directed to them; and this they charge upon Providence, whose operations are all of them so far from being injurious, that they are beneficial to us.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 771

From hence came paleness, trembling, and worse effects from crudities than famine; a weakness in the joints, the belly stretched, suffusion of choler, the torpor of the nerves, and a palpitation of the heart. To say nothing of megrims, torments of the eyes and ears, head-ache, gout, scurvy, several sorts of fevers and putrid ulcers, with other diseases that are but the punishment of luxury.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 766

The huntsman, that with which labor and hazard takes a wild beast, runs as great a risk afterwards in the keeping of him; for many times he tears out the throat of his master; and it is the same thing with inordinate pleasures: the more in number, and the greater they are, the more general and absolute a slave is the servant of them. Let the common people pronounce him as happy as they please, he pays his liberty for his delights, and sells himself for what he buys.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1397

Nor is it only by _tales_ and _stories_ that we are inflamed, but _suspicions_, _countenances_, nay, a _look_ or a _smile_, is enough to blow us up. In these cases, let us suspend our displeasure, and plead the cause of the absent. “Perhaps he is innocent; or, if not, I have time to consider of it and may take my revenge at leisure:” but when it is once _executed_ it is not to be _recalled_. A jealous head is apt to take that to himself which was never meant him.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 665

Those glories that appear fair to the eye, their lustre is but false and superficial; and they are only vanity and delusion: they are rather the goods of a dream than a substantial possession: they may cozen us at a distance, but bring them once to the touch, they are rotten and counterfeit. There are no greater wretches in the world than many of those which the people take to be happy.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 397

There are seasons wherein a benefit is neither to be received nor requited. To press a return upon me when I do not desire it, is unmannerly; but it is worse to force me to desire it. How rigorous would he be to exact a requital; who is thus eager to return it!

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1368

Cælius, a passionate orator, had a friend of singular patience that supped with him, who had no way to avoid a quarrel but by saying _amen_ to all that Cælius said. Cælius, taking this ill: “Say something against me,” says he, “that you and I may be two;” and he was angry with him because he would not: but the dispute fell, as it needs must, for want of an opponent.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 923

Let us never wonder at anything we are born to; for no man has reason to complain, where we are all in the same condition. He that escapes might have suffered; and it is but equal to submit to the law of mortality. We must undergo the colds of winter, the heats of summer; the distempers of the air, and the diseases of the body. A wild beast meets us in one place, and a man that is more brutal in another; we are here assaulted by fire, there by water.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 959

People that are either sad or fearful, we do commonly, for their own sakes, set a guard upon them, for fear they should make an ill use of being alone; especially the imprudent, who are still contriving of mischief, either for others or for themselves, in cherishing their lusts, or forming their designs. So much for the choice of a _companion_; we shall now proceed to that of a _friend_.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 924

Demetrius was reserved by Providence for the age he lived in, to show, that neither the times could corrupt him, nor he reform the people. He was a man of an exact judgment, steady to his purpose, and of a strong eloquence; not finical in his words, but his sense was masculine and vehement. He was so qualified in his life and discourse, that he served both for an example and a reproach.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 856

That which we laughed at in her we find to be true in ourselves, we are covetous and ambitious; but the world shall never bring us to acknowledge it, and we impute it to the place: nay, we are the worse of the two; for that blind fool called for a guide, and we wander about without one. It is a hard matter to cure those that will not believe they are sick. We are ashamed to admit a master, and we are too old to learn.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 747

If they had any thing in them that was substantial, they would some time or other fill and quiet us; but they serve only to provoke our appetite without anything more than pomp and show to allay it. But the best of it is, if a man cannot mend his fortune, he may yet mend his manners, and put himself so far out of her reach, that whether she gives or takes, it shall be all one to us; for we are neither the greater for the one, nor the less for the other.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 552

It is the bounty of _nature_ that we _live_; but of _philosophy_ that we _live well_, which is in truth a greater benefit than life itself. Not but that _philosophy_ is also the gift of Heaven, so far as to the faculty, but not to the science; for that must be the business of industry. No man is born wise; but wisdom and virtue require a tutor, though we can easily learn to be vicious without a master.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1427

C. Cæsar would commonly, for _exercise_ and _pleasure_, put _senators_ and _Roman knights_ to the _torture_; and _whip_ several of them like _slaves_, or put them to _death_ with the most acute _torments_, merely for the satisfaction of his _cruelty_. That Cæsar that “wished the people of Rome had but one neck, that he might cut it off at one blow;”—it was the employment, the study, and the joy of his life.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1443

I will give a shipwrecked man a plank, a lodging to a stranger, or a piece of money to him that wants it: I will dry up the tears of my friend, yet I will not weep with him, but treat him with constancy and humanity, as _one man_ ought to treat _another_.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1227

is but a wild impetuous blast, an empty tumor, the very infirmity of woman and children; a brawling, clamorous evil: and the more noise the less courage; as we find it commonly, that the boldest tongues have the faintest hearts.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 820

No man can be said to be perfectly happy that runs the risk of disappointment: which is the case of every man that _fears_ or _hopes_ for anything. For _hope_ and _fear_, how distant soever they may seem to be the one from the other, they are both of them yet coupled in the same chain, as the guard and the prisoner; and the one treads upon the heels of the other.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 921

My body is frail, and liable not only to the impressions of violence, but to afflictions also, that naturally succeed our pleasures. Full meals bring crudities; whoring and drinking make the hands to shake and the knees to tremble. It is only the surprise and newness of the thing which makes that misfortune terrible, which, by premeditation, might be made easy to us: for that which some people make light by sufferance, others do by foresight. Whatsoever is necessary, we must bear patiently.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 772

So long as our bodies were hardened with labor, or tired with exercise or hunting, our food was plain and simple; many dishes have made many diseases.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 873

There was no fear of the house falling, or the rustling of a rat behind the arras; they had no palaces then like cities; but they had open air, and breathing room, crystal fountains, refreshing shades, the meadows dressed up in their native beauty, and such cottages as were according to nature, and wherein they lived contentedly, without fear either of losing or of falling. These people lived without either solitude or fraud; and yet I must call them rather happy than wise.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 858

That which we take to be very high at a distance, we find to be but low when we come at it. And the business is, we do not understand the true state of things: we are deceived by rumors; when we have gained the thing we aimed at, we find it to be either ill or empty; or perchance less than we expect, or otherwise perhaps great, but not good.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 29

Some few fragments, however, of those books of his that are wanting, are yet preserved in the writings of other eminent authors, sufficient to show the world how great a treasure they have lost by the excellency of that little that is left.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 466

Taking for granted that _human happiness_ is founded upon _wisdom_ and _virtue_ we shall treat of these two points in order as they lie: and, _first_, of _wisdom_; not in the latitude of its various operations but as it has only a regard to good life, and the happiness of mankind.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 668

It is not possible for us to comprehend what the Power is which has made all things: some few sparks of that Divinity are discovered, but infinitely the greater part of it lies hid. We are all of us, however, thus far agreed, first, in the acknowledgement and belief of that almighty Being; and, secondly, that we are to ascribe to it all majesty and goodness.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 26

Of those pieces of his that are extant, we shall not need to give any particular account: and of those that are lost, we cannot, any farther than by lights to them from other authors, as we find them cited much to his honor; and we may reasonably compute them to be the greater part of his works.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 163

There are some that spoil a good office after it is done and others, in the very instant of doing it.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1350

It is a fantastical humor, that the same jest in private should make us merry, and yet enrage us in public; nay, we will not allow the liberty that we take. Some railleries we account pleasant, others bitter: a conceit upon a _squint-eye_, a _hunch-back_, or any personal defect, passes for a reproach. And why may we not as well hear it as see it?

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1198

If it be bred in us it will never yield to reason, for all involuntary motions are inevitable and invincible; as a kind of horror and shrugging upon the sprinkling of cold water; the hair standing on end at ill news; giddiness at the sight of a precipice; blushing at lewd discourse.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 751

When we see any man banished, beggared, tortured, we are to account, that though the mischief fell upon another, it was levelled at us. What wonder is it if, of so many thousands of dangers that are constantly hovering about us, one comes to hit us at last? That which befalls any man, may befall every man; and then it breaks the force of a present calamity to provide against the future. Whatsoever our lot is, we must bear it: as suppose it be contumely, cruelty, fire, sword, pains, diseases, or a prey to wild beasts; there is no struggling, nor any remedy but moderation. It is to no purpose to bewail any part of our life, when life itself is miserable throughout; and the whole flux of it only a course of transition from one misfortune to another.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 175

It would be too tedious to run through all the niceties that may occur upon this subject; but, in two words, he must be a wise, a friendly, and a well-bred man, that perfectly acquits himself in the art and duty of obliging: for all his actions must be squared according to the measures of _civility_, _good-nature_ and _discretion._

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 623

A great, a good, and a right mind, is a kind of divinity lodged in flesh, and may be the blessing of a slave as well as of a prince; it came from heaven, and to heaven it must return; and it is a kind of heavenly felicity, which a pure and virtuous mind enjoys, in some degree, even upon earth: whereas temples of honor are but empty names, which, probably, owe their beginning either to ambition or to violence.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 696

Now, to sum up what is already delivered, we have showed what happiness is, and wherein it consists: that it is founded upon wisdom and virtue; for we must first know what we ought to do, and then live according to that knowledge. We have also discoursed the helps of philosophy and precept toward a _happy life_; the blessing of a good conscience; that a good man can never be miserable, nor a wicked man happy; nor any man unfortunate that cheerfully submits to Providence. We shall now examine, how it comes to pass that, when the certain way to happiness lies so fair before us, men will yet steer their course on the other side, which as manifestly leads to ruin.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 715

If a man break his leg, or strain his ankle, he sends presently for a surgeon to set all right again, and does not take horse upon it, or put himself on ship-board; no more does the change of place work upon our disordered minds than upon our bodies. It is not the place, I hope, that makes either an orator or a physician. Will any man ask upon the road, Pray, which is the way to prudence, to justice, to temperance, to fortitude?

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1265

The end of all correction is either the amendment of wicked men, or to prevent the influence of ill example: for men are punished with a respect to the future; not to expiate offenses committed, but for fear of worse to come. Public offenders must be a terror to others; but still, all this while, the power of life and death must not be managed with passion.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1026

And yet philosophy itself must be handled modestly and with caution. But what shall we say of Cato then, for his meddling in the broil of a civil war, and interposing himself in the quarrel betwixt two enraged princes? He that, when Rome was split into _two factions_ betwixt Pompey and Cæsar, declared himself against _both_. I speak this of Cato’s last part; for in his former time the commonwealth was made unfit for a wise man’s administration.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 654

“I have made my way,” says Stilpo, “through fire and blood—what has become of my children I know not; but these are transitory blessings, and servants that are bound to change their masters; what was my own before is my own still.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1240

It is either stronger than reason, or it is weaker. If stronger, there is no contending with it; if weaker, reason will do the business without it. Some will have it that an angry man is good-natured and sincere; whereas, in truth, he only lays himself open out of heedlessness and want of caution. If it were in itself good the more of it the better; but in this case, the more the worse; and a wise man does his duty, without the aid of anything that is ill.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 845

The accidents that we so much boggle at are not terrible in themselves, but they are made so by our infirmities; but we consult rather what we hear than what we feel, without examining, opposing, or discussing the things we fear; so that we either stand still and tremble, or else directly run for it, as those troops did, that, upon the raising of the dust, took a flock of sheep for the enemy.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1330

What haste is there to lay a servant by the heels, or break a leg or an arm immediately for it, as if he were not to have the same power over him an hour after, that he has at that instant? The answer of a servant, a wife, a tenant, puts some people out of all patience; and yet they can quarrel with the government, for not allowing them the same liberty in public, which they themselves deny to their own families. If they say nothing, it is contumacy: if they speak or laugh, it is insolence.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 797

There is no avarice without some punishment, over and above that which it is to itself. How miserable is it in the desire! how miserable even in the attaining of our ends! For money is a greater torment in the possession than it is in the pursuit. The fear of losing it is a great trouble, the loss of it a greater, and it is made a greater yet by opinion. Nay, even in the case of no direct loss at all, the covetous man loses what he does not get.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 11

And to carry the resemblance yet one point farther, they do both of them agree in an implacable malice against those of their fellows that keep their stations. But, alas! what could _Ingratitude_ do without _Hypocrisy_, the inseparable companion of it, and, in effect, the bolder and blacker devil of the two?

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1285

We are tossed hither and thither by our affections, like a feather in a storm, and by fresh provocations the madness becomes perpetual. Miserable creatures! that ever our precious hours should be so ill employed! How prone and eager are we in our hatred, and how backward in our love!

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1329

How vain and idle are many of those things that make us stark mad! A resty horse, the overturning of a glass, the falling of a key, the dragging of a chair, a jealousy, a misconstruction. How shall that man endure the extremities of hunger and thirst that flies out into a rage for putting of a little too much water in his wine?