Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 917

If he can see a naked sword at his eyes without so much as winking; if he make it a thing indifferent to him whether his life go out at his throat or at his mouth; if he can hear himself sentenced to torments or exiles, and under the very hand of the executioner, says thus to himself, “All this I am provided for, and it is no more than a man that is to suffer the fate of humanity.” This is the temper of mind that speaks a man happy; and without this, all the confluences of external comforts signify no more than the personating of a king upon the stage; when the curtain is drawn, we are players again.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 620

And this is it that carries us to the disquisition of things divine and human; what the state of the world was before the distribution of the first matter into parts; what power it was that drew order out of that confusion, and gave laws both to the whole, and to every particle thereof; what that space is beyond the world; and whence proceed the several operations of Nature.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1489

_Parricides_ began with the _law_ against them, and the punishment instructed men in the crime. Where there are few punishments, innocency is indulged as a public good, and it is a dangerous thing to show a city how strong it is in delinquents. There is a certain contumacy in the nature of man that makes him oppose difficulties. We are better to follow than to drive; as a generous horse rides best with an easy bit. People _obey willingly_ where they are _commanded kindly_.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 219

The question now before us requires _distinction_ and _caution_. For though it be both natural and generous to wish well to my friend’s friend, yet a _second-hand benefit_ does not bind me any further than to a _second-hand gratitude_: so that I may receive great satisfaction and advantage from a good office done to my friend, and yet lie under no obligation myself; or, if any man thinks otherwise, I must ask him, in the first place, Where it begins? and, How it extends?

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1300

But Xerxes dealt a little better with Pythius, who had five sons, and desired only one of them for himself.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 603

These men should do well to fortify themselves against ill consequences by such virtues and meditations as may make them less solicitous for the future. The surest expedient in this case is to bound our desires, and to leave nothing to fortune which we may keep in our own power. Neither will this course wholly compose us, but it shows us at worst the end of our troubles.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 720

“Nay, pray be pleased to go on,” we cry, though we wish his tongue out at half-way: nay, we do not deal candidly even with God himself. We should say to ourselves in these cases, “This I have drawn upon myself. I could never be quiet until I had gotten this woman, this place, this estate, this honor, and now see what is come of it.”

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 313

It does not divert the Almighty from being still gracious, though we proceed daily in the abuse of his bounties. How many there are that enjoy the comfort of the light that do not deserve it; that wish they had never been born! and yet Nature goes quietly on with her work, and allows them a being, even in despite of their unthankfulness. Such a knave, we cry, was better used than I: and the same complaint we extend to Providence itself.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 336

I will cast away a good turn upon a bad man, and I will requite a good one; the one because it is my duty, and the other that I may not be in debt.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 290

Tiberius had gotten a trick, when any man begged money of him, to refer him to the senate, where all the petitioners were to deliver up the names of their creditors. His end perhaps was, to deter men from asking, by exposing the condition of their fortunes to an examination. But it was, however, a benefit turned unto a reprehension, and he made a reproach of a bounty.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 621

Shall any man see the glory and order of the universe; so many scattered parts and qualities wrought into one mass; such a medley of things, which are yet distinguished: the world enlightened, and the disorders of it so wonderfully regulated; and shall he not consider the Author and Disposer of all this; and whither we ourselves shall go, when our souls shall be delivered from the slavery of our flesh?

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 260

We are to _give_, if it were only to avoid _not giving_; if any thing comes of it, it is clear gain; and, at worst, there is nothing lost; beside, that one benefit well placed makes amends for a thousand miscarriages. It is not that I would exclude the benefactor neither for being himself the better for a good office he does for another. Some there are that do us good only for their own sakes; others for ours; and some again for both.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 316

It is true that a wise prince will confer peculiar honors only upon the worthy; but in the dealing of a public dole, there is no respect had to the manners of the man; but a thief or traitor shall put in for a share as well as an honest man. If a good man and a wicked man sail both in the same bottom, it is impossible that the same wind which favors the one should cross the other.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 857

Vice still goes before virtue: so that we have two works to do: we must cast off the one, and learn the other. By one evil we make way to another, and only seek things to be avoided, or those of which we are soon weary. That which seemed too much when we wished for it, proves too little when we have it; and it is not, as some imagine, that felicity is greedy, but it is little and narrow, and cannot satisfy us.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 640

All the actions of our lives ought to be governed with respect to good and evil: and it is only reason that distinguishes; by which reason we are in such manner influenced, as if a ray of the Divinity were dipt in a mortal body, and that is the perfection of mankind. It is true, we have not the eyes of eagles or the sagacity of hounds: nor if we had, could we pretend to value ourselves upon anything which we have in common with brutes.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1043

There are some creatures that confound their footing about their dens, that they may not be found out, and so should a wise man in the case of his retirement. When the door is open, the thief passes it by as not worth his while; but when it is bolted and sealed, it is a temptation for people to be prying. To have it said “that such a one is never out of his study, and sees nobody,” etc.; this furnishes matter for discourse. He that makes his retirement too strict and severe, does as good as call company to take notice of it.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 683

What was Regulus the worse, because Fortune made choice of him for an eminent instance both of faith and patience? He was thrown into a case of wood stuck with pointed nails, so that which way soever he turned his body, it rested upon his wounds; his eyelids were cut off to keep him waking; and yet Mecænas was not happier upon his _bed_ than Regulus upon his _torments_.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1141

It is a masterpiece to draw good out of evil; and, by the help of virtue, to improve misfortunes into blessings. “It is a sad condition,” you will say, “for a man to be barred the freedom of his own country.” And is not this the case of thousands that we meet every day in the streets?

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1334

We tear a book because it is blotted; and our clothes, because they are not well made: things that neither deserve our anger nor feel it: the tailor, perchance, did his best, or, however, had no intent to displease us: if so, first, why should we be angry at all? Secondly, why should we be angry with the thing for the man’s sake? Nay, our anger extends even to dogs, horses, and other beasts.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 272

These men are betwixt grateful and ungrateful; they will neither deny an obligation nor return it, and only want quickening. I will do all I can to hinder any man from ill-doing, but especially a friend; and yet more especially from doing ill to me.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1295

The malevolent and the envious content themselves only to _wish_ another man miserable; but it is the business of anger to _make_ him so, and to wreck the mischief itself; not so much desiring the hurt of another, as to inflict it. Among the powerful, it breaks out into open war, and into a private one with the common people, but without force or arms.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 598

One man sets up for a speaker, and is out as soon as he opens his mouth; another overcharges his estate, perhaps, or his body: a bashful man is not fit for public business: some again are too stiff and peremptory for the court: many people are apt to fly out in their anger, nay, and in a frolic too; if any sharp thing fall in their way, they will rather venture a neck than lose a jest. These people had better be quiet in the world than busy.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 734

Every moment, if it spares me, deceives me; and yet in some sort it does not deceive me; for though I know that any thing may happen, yet I know likewise that everything will not. I will hope the best, and provide for the worst. Methinks we should not find so much fault with Fortune for her inconstancy when we ourselves suffer a change every moment that we live; only other changes make more noise, and this steals upon us like the shadow upon a dial, every jot as certainly, but more insensibly.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1512

This is a glorious mercy, and worthy of a prince, to make all things gentler wherever he comes.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1190

They are angry without any cause or injury; they are deluded by an imitation of strokes, and pacified with counterfeit tears. A false and a childish sorrow is appeased with as false and as childish a revenge. They take it for a contempt, if the _gladiators_ do not immediately cast themselves upon the sword’s point. They look presently about them from one to another, as who should say; “Do but see, my masters, how these rogues abuse us.”

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 113

When Domitius was besieged in Corfinium, and the place brought to great extremity, he pressed his servant so earnestly to poison him, that at last he was prevailed upon to give him a potion; which, it seems, was an innocent opiate, and Domitius outlived it: Cæsar took the town, and gave Domitius his life, but it was his servant that gave it him first.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 709

This is it that puts us upon rambling voyages; one while by land; but still disgusted with the present: the town pleases us to-day, the country to-morrow: the splendors of the court at one time, the horrors of a wilderness at another, but all this while we carry our plague about us; for it is not the place we are weary of, but ourselves. Nay, our weakness extends to everything; for we are impatient equally of toil and of pleasure.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 918

Not that I pretend to exempt a wise man out of a number of men, as if he had no sense of pain; but I reckon him as compounded of body and soul; the body is irrational, and may be galled, burnt, tortured; but the rational part is fearless, invincible, and not to be shaken. This it is that I reckon upon as the supreme good of man; which until it be perfected, is but an unsteady agitation of thought, and in the perfection an immovable stability.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1433

For “whosoever threatens all, is in danger of all,” over and above, that the cruelty of the prince increases the _number_ of his enemies, by destroying some of them; for it entails an hereditary hatred upon the friends and relations of those that are taken away. And then it has this misfortune, that a man must be wicked upon necessity; for there is no going back; so that he must betake himself to arms, and yet he lives in fear.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1369

He that is naturally addicted to anger, let him use a moderate diet, and abstain from wine; for it is but adding fire to fire. Gentle exercises, recreations, and sports, temper and sweeten the mind. Let him have a care also of long and obstinate disputes; for it is easier not to begin them than to put an end to them.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 322

But why should I call any man ungrateful, you will say, for not restoring that which I deny to be a benefit? I answer, that if the receiver take it for a benefit, and fails of a return, it is ingratitude in him: for that which goes for an obligation among wicked men, is an obligation upon them: and they may pay one another in their own coin; the money is current, whether it be gold or leather, when it comes once to be authorized.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 310

I would not do any thing that might contribute to the support or advantage of his party. But what should I do now in the case of a benefactor, that should afterwards become not only mine and my country’s enemy, but the common enemy of mankind! I would here distinguish betwixt the wickedness of a man and the cruelty of a beast—betwixt a limited or a particular passion and a sanguinary rage that extends to the hazard and destruction of human society.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 548

Neither is _philosophy_ only profitable to the public, but one wise man helps another, even in the exercise of the virtues; and the one has need of the other, both for conversation and counsel; for they kindle a mutual emulation in good offices.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 289

The benefits that we receive from our superiors are then welcome when they come with an open hand, and a clear brow; without either contumely or state; and so as to prevent our necessities. The benefit is never the greater for the making of a bustle and a noise about it: but the benefactor is much the less for the ostentation of his good deeds; which makes that odious to us, which would otherwise be delightful.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 208

Let the world judge now, whether Archelaus’ _bounty_, or Socrates’ _philosophy_, would have been the greater present: he does not understand the value of wisdom and friendship that does not know a wise friend to be the noblest of presents. A rarity scarce to be found, not only in a family, but in an age; and nowhere more wanted than where there seems to be the greatest store. The greater a man is, the more need he has of him; and the more difficulty there is both of finding and of knowing him.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1149

To come lower now; where is the people or nation that have not changed their place of abode? Some by the fate of war; others have been cast by tempests, shipwrecks, or want of provisions, upon unknown coasts. Some have been forced abroad by pestilence, sedition, earthquakes, surcharge of people at home.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1506

If he had not _forgiven_ those that he _conquered_, whom should he have _governed_? He chose his very _life-guard_ from among his _enemies_, and the _flower_ of the Romans owed their _lives_ to his _clemency_. Nay, he only punished Lepidus himself with _banishment_, and permitted him to wear the _ensigns_ of his _dignity_, without taking the _pontificate_ to himself so long as Lepidus was living; for he would not possess it as a _spoil_, but as an _honor_.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1440

The humanity and excellence of this virtue is confessed at all hands, as well by the men of _pleasure_, and those that think every man was made for himself, as by the Stoics, that make “man a sociable creature, and born for the common good of mankind:” for it is of all dispositions the most _peaceable_ and _quiet_. But before we enter any farther upon the discourse, it should be first known what _clemency_ is, that we may distinguish it from _pity_; which is a _weakness_, though many times mistaken for a _virtue_: and the next thing will be, to bring the mind to the _habit_ and _exercise_ of it.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 726

To secure ourselves in this world, first, we must aim at nothing that men count worth the wrangling for. Secondly, we must not value the possession of any thing which even a common thief would think worth the stealing. A man’s body is no booty. Let the way be never so dangerous for robberies, the poor and the naked pass quietly. A plain-dealing sincerity of manners makes a man’s life happy, even in despite of scorn and contempt, which is every clear man’s fate.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 759

Those false and miserable palates, that judge of meats by the price and difficulty, not by the healthfulness of taste, they vomit that they may eat, and they eat that they may fetch it up again. They cross the seas for rarities, and when they have swallowed them, they will not so much as give them time to digest. Wheresoever Nature has placed men, she has provided them aliment: but we rather choose to irritate hunger by expense than to allay it at an easier rate.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 250

All this, says Epicurus, we are to ascribe to Nature. And why not to God, I beseech ye? as if they were not both of them one and the same power, working in the whole, and in every part of it. Or, if you call him the Almighty Jupiter; the Thunderer; the Creator and Preserver of us all: it comes to the same issue; some will express him under the notion of _Fate_; which is only a connexion of causes, and himself the uppermost and original, upon which all the rest depend.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 962

So that they had their _first_, their _second,_ and their _third_ rate friends; but none of them true: only they are called so in course, as we salute strangers with some title or other of respect at a venture. There is no depending upon those men that only take their compliment in their turn, and rather slip through the door than enter at it. He will find himself in a great mistake, that either seeks for a friend in a palace, or tries him at a feast.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 909

Let us but consult history, and we shall find, even in the most effeminate of nations, and the most dissolute of times, men of all degrees, ages, and fortunes, nay, even women themselves, that have overcome the fear of death: which, in truth, is so little to be feared, that duly considered, it is one of the greatest benefits of nature.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1470

If we be covetous, we fish the seas and ransack the earth for treasure: if ambitious, we burn our own flesh with Scævola; we cast ourselves into the gulf with Curtius: so would that vast multitude of people, which is animated but with one soul, governed by one spirit, and moved by one reason, destroy itself with its own strength, if it were not supported by wisdom and government.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 169

never was any thing done so generously, so tenderly, with so good a grace. What is it I would not do to serve this man? A thousand times as much another way could not have given me this satisfaction.” In such a case, let the benefit be never so considerable, the manner of conferring it is yet the noblest part. Where there is harshness of language, countenance, or behavior, a man had better be without it.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 762

which may serve to show us, that it is the mind, and not the sum, that makes any man rich; when Apicius with all his treasure counted himself in a state of beggary, and took poison to avoid that condition, which another would have prayed for. But why do we call it poison, which was the wholesomest draught of his life? His daily gluttony was poison rather, both to himself and others.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 212

And why am I not as criminal in being ungrateful to myself as if I were so to another body? And the case is the same in flattery and several other vices; as, on the other side, it is a point of great reputation for a man to command himself. Plato thanked Socrates for what he had _learned_ of him; and why might not Socrates as well thank Plato for that which he had _taught_ him? “That which you want,” says Plato, “borrow it of yourself.” And why may not I as well give to myself as lend?

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1108

At night, he was merry at supper, and seized immediately after with a quinsy which dispatched him in a few hours. This man that had money at use in all places, and in the very course and height of his prosperity was thus cut off. How foolish a thing is it then for a man to flatter himself with long hopes, and to pretend to dispose of the future: nay, the very present slips through our fingers, and there is not that moment which we can call our own.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 699

Others, again, afflict themselves with the apprehension of evils to come; and very ridiculously: for the _one_ does not _now_ concern us, and the _other_ not _yet_: beside that, there may he remedies for mischiefs likely to happen; for they give us warning by signs and symptoms of their approach.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 95

To shut up all in one word; as benevolence is the most sociable of all virtues, so it is of the largest extent; for there is not any man, either so great or so little, but he is yet capable of giving and of receiving benefits.