Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1019

It was Augustus’ prayer, that he might live to retire and deliver himself from public business: his discourses were still pointing that way, and the highest felicity which this mighty prince had in prospect, was the divesting himself of that illustrious state, which, how glorious soever in show, had at the bottom of it only anxiety and care.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 93

Some benefits are common, others are personal; as if a prince (out of pure grace) grant a privilege to a city, the obligation lies upon the community, and only upon every individual as a part of the whole; but if it be done particularly for my sake, then am I singly the debtor for it. The cherishing of strangers is one of the duties of hospitality, and exercises itself in the relief and protection of the distressed.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 937

It was a brave presence of mind also in Alexander, who, upon advice that his physician Philip intended to poison him, took the letter of advice in one hand and the cup in the other; delivering Philip the letter to read while he himself drank the potion.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 56

Seneca finding that he had ill offices done him at court, and that Nero’s favor began to cool, he went directly and resolutely to Nero, with an offer to refund all that he had gotten, which Nero would not receive; but however, from that time he changed his course of life, received few visits, shunned company, went little abroad; still pretending to be kept at home, either by indisposition or by his study. Being Nero’s tutor and governor, all things were well so long as Nero followed his counsel.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1486

To pass now to the vindication of others, there must be had a regard either to the amendment of the person punished, or the making others better for fear of punishment, or the taking the offender out of the way for the security of others. An amendment may be procured by a small punishment, for he lives more carefully that has something yet to lose—it is a kind of _impunity_ to be incapable of a _farther punishment_.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 91

There are matters of great value, many times, that are but of small price; as instructions from a tutor, medicine from a physician, etc. And there are small matters again, which are of great consideration to us: the gift is small, and the consequence great; as a cup of cold water in a time of need may save a man’s life.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 79

He went at last into a hot bath, and sprinkling some of his servants that were next him, this, says he, is an oblation to Jupiter _the deliverer_. The fume of the bath soon dispatched him, and his body was burnt, without any funeral solemnity, as he had directed in his testament: though this will of his was made in the height of his prosperity and power.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1210

This man deserved to die a thousand deaths, either for eating human flesh at second-hand in his _lampreys_, or for keeping of his fish to be so fed.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1241

It is objected by some, that those are the most generous creatures which are the most prone to anger. But, first, _reason_ in _man_ is _impetuous_ in _beasts_. Secondly, without discipline it runs into audaciousness and temerity; over and above that, the same thing does not help all. If anger helps the lion, it is fear that saves the stag, swiftness the hawk, and flight the pigeon: but man has God for his example (who is never angry) and not the _creatures_.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 28

Augustine quotes some passages of his out of a book of Superstition; some references we meet with to his books of Exhortations: Fabius makes mention of his Dialogues: and he himself speaks of a treatise of his own concerning Earthquakes, which he wrote in his youth, but the opinion of an epistolary correspondence that he had with St. Paul, does not seem to have much color for it.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 473

There is no condition of life that excludes a wise man from discharging his duty. If his fortune be good, he _tempers_ it; if bad, he _masters_ it; if he has an estate, he will exercise his virtue in plenty; if none, in poverty: if he cannot do it in his country, he will do it in banishment; if he has no command, he will do the office of a common soldier.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1102

He that will not follow shall be drawn by force: and is it not much better now to do that willingly which we shall otherwise be made to do in spite of our hearts?

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1152

And this blessing we owe to that almighty Power, call it what you will; either a _God_, or an _Incorporeal Reason_, a _Divine Spirit_, or _Fate_, and the _unchangeable Course_ of _causes_ and _effects_: it is, however, so ordered, that nothing can be taken from us but what we can well spare: and that which is most magnificent and valuable continues with us.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 597

In all our undertakings, let us first examine our own strength; the enterprise next; and, thirdly, the persons with whom we have to do. The first point is most important; for we are apt to overvalue ourselves, and reckon that we can do more than indeed we can.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 174

There was a good man that had a friend, who was both poor and sick, and ashamed to own his condition: he privately conveyed a bag of money under his pillow, that he might seem rather to find than receive it. Provided I know that I give it, no matter for his knowing from whence it comes that receives it. Many a man stands in need of help that has not the face to confess it: if the discovery may give offence, let it lie concealed; he that gives to be seen would never relieve a man in the dark.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1125

The loss of a son or of a friend, cuts a man to the heart, and there is no opposing the first violence of his passion; but when a man comes once to deliver himself wholly up to lamentations, he is to understand, that though some tears deserve compassion, others are yet ridiculous. A grief that is fresh finds pity and comfort, but when it is inveterate it is laughed at, for it is either counterfeit or foolish. Beside that, to weep excessively for the dead is an affront to the living.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 476

She teaches us what things are good, what evil, and what only appear so; and to distinguish betwixt true greatness and tumor.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 167

As in the case of the Cynic that begged a talent of Antigonus: “That is too much,” says he, “for a Cynic to ask;” and when he fell to a penny, “That is too little,” says he, “for a prince to give.” He might have found a way to have compounded this controversy, by giving him a _penny_ as to a _Cynic_ and a _talent_ as from a _prince_. Whatsoever we bestow, let it be done with a frank and cheerful countenance: a man must not give with his hand, and deny with his looks.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 469

It examines all the circumstances of time; “what it is, when it began, and how long it will continue: and so for the mind; whence it came; what it is; when it begins; how long it lasts; whether or not it passes from one form to another, or serves only one and wanders when it leaves us; whether it abides in a state of separation, and what the action of it; what use it makes of its liberty; whether or not it retains the memory of things past, and comes to the knowledge of itself.” It is the habit of a perfect mind, and the perfection of humanity, raised as high as Nature can carry it.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 376

Without gratitude, we can neither have security, peace, nor reputation: and it is not therefore the less desirable, because it draws many adventitious benefits along with it.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 896

We cannot close up this chapter with a more generous instance of moderation than that of Fabricius. Pyrrhus tempted him with a sum of money to betray his country, and Pyrrhus’s physician offered Fabricius, for a sum of money, to poison his _master_; but he was too brave either to be overcome by gold, or to be overcome by poison, so that he refused the money, and advised Pyrrhus to have a care of treachery: and this too in the heat of a licentious war. Fabricius valued himself upon his poverty, and was as much above the thought of riches as of poison. “Live Pyrrhus,” says he “by my friendship; and turn that to thy satisfaction which was before thy trouble:” that is to say that Fabricius could not be corrupted.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 538

From this general prospect of the _foundation_ of our _tranquillity_, we shall pass by degrees to a particular consideration of the _means_ by which it may be _procured_, and of the _impediments_ that _obstruct_ it; beginning with that _philosophy_ which principally regards our manners, and instructs us in the measures of a virtuous and quiet life.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1450

A skilful rider brings his horse to obedience by mingling fair means with foul; whereas to be perpetually switching and spurring, makes him vicious and jadish: and shall we not have more care of _men_ than of _beasts_? It breaks the hope of generous inclinations, when they are depressed by servility and terror. There is no creature so hard to be pleased with ill usage as man.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1395

In those cases where we ourselves are witnesses, we should take into consideration all the circumstances.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 527

Socrates looked a scandalous death in the face with the same constancy that he had before practiced towards the thirty tyrants: his virtue consecrated the very dungeon: as Cato’s repulse was Cato’s honor, and the reproach of the government.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 758

One diversion overtakes another; hope excites hope; ambition begets ambition; so that they only change the matter of their miseries, without seeking any end of them; and shall never be without either prosperous or unhappy causes of disquiet. What if a body might have all the pleasures in the world for the asking? who would so much unman himself, as by accepting of them, to desert his soul, and become a perpetual slave to his senses?

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 519

For virtue is open to all; as well to servants and exiles, as to princes: it is profitable to the world and to itself, at all distances and in all conditions; and there is no difficulty can excuse a man from the exercise of it; and it is only to be found in a wise man, though there may be some faint resemblances of it in the common people.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 285

If it were in my power to serve him, I should be very glad of it.” And this, too, not with the figure of a compliment, but with all humanity and truth.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1029

There is scarce any government to be found that will either endure a wise man, or which a wise man will endure; so that privacy is made necessary, because the only thing which is better is nowhere to be had. A man may commend navigation, and yet caution us against those seas that are troublesome and dangerous: so that he does as good as command me not to weigh anchor that commends sailing only upon these terms. He that is a slave to business is the most wretched of slaves.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1303

He was loth to degenerate from a Macedonian _liberty_ into a Persian _slavery_; that is to say, he could not _flatter_.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 569

You teach me how I may hold my own, and keep my estate; but I would rather learn how I may lose it all, and yet be contented. “It is hard,” you will say, “for a man to be forced from the fortune of his family.” This estate, it is true, was my _father’s_; but whose was it in the time of my _grandfather_? I do not only say, what _man’s_ was it? but what _nation’s_?

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1072

Some men are particularly afraid of thunder, and yet extremely careless of other and of greater dangers: as if that were all they have to fear. Will not a sword, a stone, a fever, do the work as well? Suppose the bolt should hit us, it were yet braver to die with a stroke than with the bare apprehension of it: beside the vanity of imagining that heaven and earth should be put into such a disorder only for the death of one man.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 900

An _injury_ cannot be received, but it must be _done_; but it may be _done_ and yet not _received_; as a man may be in the water, and not swim, but if he swims, it is presumed that he is in the water. Or if a blow or a shot be levelled at us, it may so happen that a man may miss his aim, or some accident interpose that may divert the mischief. That which is hurt is passive, and inferior to that which hurts it.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 531

I speak of those that fortune has made famous for their persecutions: and there are others also that the world never took notice of until they were dead; as Epicurus and Metrodorus, that were almost wholly unknown, even in the place where they lived. Now, as the body is to be kept in upon the down-hill, and forced upwards, so there are some virtues that require the rein and others the spur.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1191

To descend to the particular branches and varieties would be unnecessary and endless. There is a stubborn, a vindictive, a quarrelsome, a violent, a froward, a sullen, a morose kind of anger; and then we have this variety in complication too. One goes no further than words; another proceeds immediately to blows, without a word speaking; a third sort breaks out into cursing and reproachful language; and there are that content themselves with chiding and complaining. There is a conciliable anger and there is an implacable; but in what form or degree soever it appears, all anger, without exception, is vicious.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 98

He gave me life, not knowing to whom; and when I was in a condition neither to feel death nor to fear it. That is the great benefit, to give life to one that knows how to use it, and that is capable of the apprehension of death. It is true, that without a father I could never have had a being; and so, without a nurse, that being had never been improved: but I do not therefore owe my virtue either to my nativity or to her that gave me suck.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1390

Wherefore, some things we are to pause upon, others to laugh at, and others again to pardon. Or, if we cannot avoid the sense of indignities, let us however shun the open profession of it, which may easily be done, as appears by many examples of those that have suppressed their anger under the awe of a greater fear. It is a good caution not to believe any thing until we are very certain of it; for many probable things prove false, and a short time will make evidence of the undoubted truth.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 420

And yet a man may as well refuse to deliver up a sum of money that is left him in trust without a suit, as not to return a good office without asking; and when we have no value any farther for the benefit, we do commonly care as little for the author. People follow their interest: one man is grateful for his convenience, and another man is ungrateful for the same reason.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 51

It has been an ancient custom to record the actions and the writings of eminent men, with all their circumstances, and it is but a right that we owe to the memory of our famous author. Seneca was by birth a Spaniard of Cordova, (a Roman colony of great fame and antiquity.) He was of the family of Annæus, of the order of knights; and the father, Lucius Annæus Seneca, was distinguished from the son, by the name of _the Orator_. His mother’s name was Helvia, a woman of excellent qualities.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 238

The drift of this discourse is, to support the cause of benefits; and to prove, that it is a mean and dishonorable thing to give for any other end than for giving’s sake. He that gives for gain, profit, or any by-end, destroys the very intent of bounty; for it falls only upon those that do not want, and perverts the charitable inclinations of princes and of great men, who cannot reasonably propound to themselves any such end.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 877

It is the wonderful benignity of Nature that has laid open to us all things that may do us good, and only hid those things from us that may hurt us; as if she durst not trust us with gold and silver, or with iron, which is the instrument of war and contention, for the other. It is we ourselves that have drawn out of the earth both the _causes_ and the _instruments_ of our dangers: and we are so vain as to set the highest esteem upon those things to which Nature has assigned the lowest place.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 532

In _liberality_, _temperance_, _gentleness_ of nature, we are to check ourselves for fear of falling; but in _patience_, _resolutions_, and _perseverance_, where we are to mount the hill, we stand in need of encouragement. Upon this division of the matter, I had rather steer the smoother course than pass through the experiments of sweat and blood: I know it is my duty to be content in all conditions; but yet, if it were at my election, I would choose the fairest.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1268

There is no surer argument of a great mind than not to be transported to anger by any accident; the clouds and the tempests are formed below, but all above is quiet and serene; which is the emblem of a brave man, that suppresses all provocations, and lives within himself, modest, venerable, and composed: whereas anger is a turbulent humor, which, at first dash, casts off all shame, without any regard to order, measure, or good manners; transporting a man into misbecoming violences with his tongue, his hands, and every part of his body.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 703

Levity of mind is a great hindrance of repose, and the very change of wickedness is an addition to the wickedness itself; for it is inconstancy added to iniquity; we relinquish the thing we sought, and then we take it up again; and so divide our lives between our lust and our repentances. From one appetite we pass to another, not so much upon choice as for change; and there is a check of conscience that casts a damp upon all our unlawful pleasures, which makes us lose the day in expectation of the night, and the night itself for fear of the approaching light.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 475

They that ascribe the invention of tillage, architecture, navigation, etc., to wise men, may perchance be in the right, that they were invented by wise men, as _wise men_; for wisdom does not teach our fingers, but our minds: fiddling and dancing, arms and fortifications, were the works of luxury and discord; but wisdom instructs us in the way of nature, and in the arts of unity and concord, not in the instruments, but in the government of life; not to make us live only, but to live happily.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 700

Let him that would be quiet take heed not to provoke men that are in power, but live without giving offence; and if we cannot make all great men our friends, it will suffice to keep them from being our enemies. This is a thing we must avoid, as a mariner would do a storm.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 808

He that had subdued so many princes and nations, upon the killing of Clytus (one friend) and the loss of Hyphestion (another) delivered himself up to anger and sadness; and when he was master of the world, he was yet a slave to his passions. Look into Cyrus, Cambyses, and the whole Persian line, and you shall not find so much as one man of them that died satisfied with what he had gotten.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 655

Some have lost their estates, others their dear-bought mistresses, their commissions and offices: the usurers have lost their bonds and securities: but, Demetrius, for my part I have saved all, and do not imagine after all this, either that Demetrius is a conqueror, or that Stilpo is overcome—it is only thy fortune has been too hard for mine.”

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 505

This it is that makes the prisoner upon the torture happier than the executioner, and sickness better than health, if we bear it without yielding or repining—this it is that overcomes ill-fortune and moderates good—for it marches betwixt the one and the other, with an equal contempt for both. It turns (like fire) all things into itself, our actions and our friendships are tinctured with it, and whatever it touches becomes amiable.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 92

Some things are of great moment to the giver, others to the receiver: one man gives me a house; another snatches me out when it is falling upon my head; one gives me an estate; another takes me out of the fire, or casts me out a rope when I am sinking. Some good offices we do to friends, others to strangers; but those are the noblest that we do without pre-desert. There is an obligation of bounty, and an obligation of charity; this in case of necessity, and that in point of convenience.