Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1401

why then, “It was against his will.” Is he my enemy? It is “no more than I looked for.” Let us give way to wise men, and not squabble with fools; and say thus to ourselves, “We have all of us our errors.” No man is so circumspect, so considerate, or so fearful of offending, but he has much to answer for.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 942

The love of society is natural; but the choice of our company is matter of virtue and prudence. Noble examples stir us up to noble actions; and the very history of large and public souls, inspires a man with generous thoughts. It makes a man long to be in action, and doing something that the world may be the better for; as protecting the weak, delivering the oppressed, punishing the insolent.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 783

How long shall we covet and oppress, enlarge our possessions, and account that too little for one man which was formerly enough for a nation? And our luxury is as insatiable as our avarice. Where is that lake, that sea, that forest, that spot of land; that is not ransacked to gratify our palate? The very earth is burdened with our buildings; not a river, not a mountain, escapes us. Oh, that there should be such boundless desires in our little bodies! Would not fewer lodgings serve us?

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1413

We cry out presently, “What law have we transgressed?” As if the letter of the law were the sum of our duty, and that piety, humanity, liberality, justice, and faith, were things beside our business. No, no; the rule of human duty is of a greater latitude; and we have many obligations upon us that are not to be found in the _statute-books_. And yet we fall short of the exactness event of that _legal innocency_.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1209

Cæsar, in abhorrence of the barbarity, presently ordered all the rest of the glasses to be broken, the boy to be released, and the pond to be filled up, that there might be no further occasion for an inhumanity of that nature. This was an authority well employed. Shall the breaking of a glass cost a man his life? Nothing but a predominant fear could ever have mastered his choleric and sanguinary disposition.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 354

How great a man soever he was in other cases, without dispute he was extremely out in this, and below the dignity of his profession.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 882

It is a common objection, I know, that these philosophers do not live at the rate they talk; fer they can flatter their superiors, gather estates, and be as much concerned at the loss of fortune, or of friends, as other people: as sensible of reproaches, as luxurious in their eating and drinking, their furniture, their houses; as magnificent in their plate, servants, and officers; as profuse and curious in their gardens, etc. Well! and what of all this, or if it were twenty times more?

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1084

But let us soberly attend our business: and since it is uncertain _when_, or _where_, we shall die, let us look for death in all places, and at all times: we can never study that point too much, which we can never come to experiment whether we know it or not. It is a blessed thing to dispatch the business of life before we die, and then to expect death in the possession of a happy life. He is the great man who is willing to die when his life is pleasant to him.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1261

We give a horse the spur that is restive or jadish, and tries to cast his rider; but this is without anger too, and only to take down his stomach, and bring him, by correction, to obedience.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 12

for Lucifer himself never had the face to lift up his eyes to heaven, and talk to the ALMIGHTY at the familiar rate of our pretended patriots and zealots, and at the same time to make him party to a cheat.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 216

Or what if I should allow, that a man might confer a benefit upon himself; yet he cannot owe it, for he returns it in the same instant that he receives it. No man gives, owes, or makes a return, but to another. How can one man do that to which two parties are requisite in so many respects? Giving and receiving must go backward and forward betwixt two persons.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1423

Do but see how sneakingly that rascal dies._ Look to yourselves, my masters, and consider of it: who knows but this may come to be your own case?” Wicked examples seldom fail of coming home at last to the authors. To destroy a _single_ man may be dangerous; but to murder whole nations is only a more _glorious wickedness.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 910

It was as great an honor for Cato, when his party was broken, that he himself stood his ground, as it would have been if he had carried the day, and settled an universal peace: for, it is an equal prudence, to make the best of a bad game, and to manage a good one. The day that he was _repulsed_, he _played_, and the night that he _killed_ himself, he _read_, as valuing the loss of his life, and the missing of an office at the same rate.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1217

He was much in the right, whoever it was, that first called _anger a short madness_; for they have both of them the same symptoms; and there is so wonderful a resemblance betwixt the transports of _choler_ and those of _frenzy_, that it is a hard matter to know the one from the other.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1479

Clemency protects a prince without a guard; there is no need of troops, castles, or fortifications: security on the one side is the condition of security on the other; and the affections of the subject are the most invincible fortress. What can be fairer, than for a prince to live the object of his people’s love; to have the vows of their heart as well as of their lips, and his health and sickness their common hopes and fears?

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1467

So that if God should at this instant call me to an account, the whole world agree to witness for me, that I have not by any force, either public or private, either by myself or by any other, defrauded the commonwealth; and the reputation that I have ever sought for has been that which few princes have obtained, the conscience of my proper innocence.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1047

“There is no man,” in fine, “so miserable as he that is at a loss how to spend his time.” He is restless in his thoughts, unsteady in his counsels, dissatisfied with the present, solicitous for the future; whereas he that prudently computes his hours and his business, does not only fortify himself against the common accidents of life, but improves the most rigorous dispensations of Providence to his comfort, and stands firm under all the trials of human weakness.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 395

Let such a one fall into my power, or into the hands of his enemies, his creditors, or the common people, and no mortal be able to rescue him but myself: let his life, his liberty, and his reputation, lie all at stake, and no creature but myself in condition to succor him; and why all this, but because he has obliged me, and I would requite him? If this be gratitude to propound jails, shackles, slavery, war, beggary, to the man that you would requite, what would you do where you are ungrateful?

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 679

How many casualties and difficulties are there that we dread as insupportable mischiefs, which, upon farther thoughts, we find to be mercies and benefits? as banishment, poverty, loss of relations, sickness, disgrace.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1385

Other affections may be better dealt with at leisure; for they proceed gradually: but this commences and perfects itself in the same moment. It does not, like other passions, solicit and mislead us, but it runs away with us by force, and hurries us on with an irresistible temerity, as well to our own as to another’s ruin: not only flying in the face of him that provokes us, but like a torrent, bearing down all before it.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1221

If I were to describe it, I would draw a tiger bathed in blood, sharp set, and ready to take a leap at his prey; or dress it up as the poets represent the furies, with whips, snakes, and flames; it should be sour, livid, full of scars, and wallowing in gore, raging up and down, destroying, grinning, bellowing, and pursuing; sick of all other things, and most of all, itself.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 203

This is a remarkable instance of an immovable mind, and there is hardly any contending with it; but a man is never the less valiant for being worsted by an invulnerable enemy; nor the fire one jot the weaker for not consuming an incombustible body; nor a sword ever a whit the worse for not cleaving a rock that is impenetrable; neither is a grateful mind overcome for want of an answerable fortune.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 282

It is the freak of many people, they cannot do a good office but they are presently boasting of it, drunk or sober: and about it goes into all companies what wonderful things they have done for this man, and what for the other. A foolish and a dangerous vanity, of a doubtful friend to make a certain enemy.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1122

If reason does not put an end to our sorrows, fortune never will: one is pinched with poverty; another solicited with ambition, and fears the very wealth that he coveted. One is troubled for the loss of children; another for the want of them: so that we shall sooner want tears than matter for them; let us therefore spare that for which we have so much occasion.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 187

I would have some respect to the time; the obligation came first; and then, perhaps, the one was designed, the other against his will; under these considerations I would amplify the benefit, and lessen the injury; and extinguish the one with the other; nay, I would pardon the injury even _without_ the benefit, but much more _after_ it.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1096

What it is we know not, and it were rash to condemn what we do not understand; but this we presume, either that we shall pass out of this into a better life, where we shall live with tranquillity and splendor, in diviner mansions, or else return to our first principles, free from the sense of any inconvenience. There is nothing immortal, nor many things lasting; by but divers ways everything comes to an end.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 84

He that does good to another man does good also to himself; not only in the consequence, but in the very act of doing it; for the conscience of well-doing is an ample reward.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 940

The comfort of life depends upon conversation. Good offices, and concord, and human society, is like the working of an arch of stone; all would fall to the ground if one piece did not support another. Above all things let us have a tenderness for blood; and it is yet too little not to hurt, unless we profit one another.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1332

And what is the reason, but that we are patient in the one place, and fantastically peevish in the other? Nothing makes us more intemperate than luxury, that shrinks at every stroke, and starts at every shadow. It is death to some to have another sit above them, as if a body were ever the more or the less honest for the cushion. But they are only weak creatures that think themselves wounded if they be but touched.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 105

This Manlius, hearing that his father’s life was in question, and a day set for his trial, went to the tribune that was concerned in his cause, and discoursed with him about it: the tribune told him the appointed time, and withal (as an obligation upon the young man) that his cruelty to his son would be part of his accusation.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1406

As it is some satisfaction to a man in a mean condition that there is no security in a more prosperous; and as the loss of a son in a corner is borne with more patience upon the sight of a funeral carried out of a palace; so are injuries and contempts the more tolerable from a meaner person, when we consider, that the greatest men and fortunes are not exempt. The wisest also of mortals have their failings, and no man living is without the same excuse.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 779

As to the wrathful, the contentious, the ambitious, though the distemper be great, the offence has yet something in it that is manly; but the basest of prostitutes are those that dedicate themselves wholly to lust; what with their hopes and fears, anxiety of thought, and perpetual disquiets, they are never well, full nor fasting.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 950

The best conversation is with the philosophers—that is to say, with such of them as teach us matter, not words—that preach to us things necessary and keep us to the practice of them. There can be no peace in human life without the contempt of all events. There is nothing that either puts better thoughts into a man, or sooner sets him right that is out of the way, than a good companion, for the example has the force of a precept, and touches the heart with an affection to goodness; and not only the frequent hearing and seeing of a wise man delights us, but the very encounter of him suggests profitable contemplation such as a man finds himself moved with when he goes into a holy place. I will take more care with _whom_ I eat and drink than _what_, for without a friend the table is a manger.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 398

To wish a man in distress that I may relieve him, is first to wish him miserable: to wish that he may stand in need of anybody, is _against him_; and to wish that he may stand in need of me, is _for myself_: so that my business is not so much a charity to my friend as the cancelling of a bond; nay, it is half-way the wish of an enemy. It is barbarous to wish a man in chains, slavery, or want, only to bring him out again: let me rather wish him powerful and happy, and myself indebted to him!

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 125

It is not the incense, or the offering, that is acceptable to God, but the purity and devotion of the worshipper: neither is the bare will, without action, sufficient, that is, where we have the means of acting; for, in that case, it signifies as little to _wish_ well, without _well-doing_, as to _do_ good without _willing_ it. There must be effect as well as intention, to make me owe a benefit; but, to will against it, does wholly discharge it.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 740

Those kingdoms that stood the shock both of foreign wars and civil, come to destruction without the sight of an enemy. Nay, we are to dread our peace and felicity more than violence, because we are here taken unprovided; unless in a state of peace we do the duty of men in war, and say to ourselves, _Whatsoever may be, will be_.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 339

I will say, in excuse of human weakness, that one man’s memory is not sufficient for all things; it is but a limited capacity, so as to hold only so much, and no more: and when it is once full, it must let out part of what it had to take in anything beside; and the last benefit ever sits closest to us. In our youth we forget the obligations of our infancy, and when we are men we forget those of our youth.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1263

The public magistrate begins with persuasion, and his business is to beget a detestation for vice, and a veneration for virtue; from thence, if need be, he advances to admonition and reproach, and then to punishments; but moderate and revocable, unless the wickedness be incurable, and then the punishment must be so too.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 743

nay, whole countries are lost, and large provinces laid under water; but time brings all things to an end; for all the works of mortals are mortal; all possessions and their possessors are uncertain and perishable; and what wonder is it to lose anything at any time, when we must one day lose all?

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 361

If a benefit be forced upon me, as from a tyrant, or a superior, where it may be dangerous to refuse, this is rather obeying than receiving, where the necessity destroys the choice. The way to know what I have a mind to do, is to leave me at liberty whether I will do it or not; but it is yet a benefit, if a man does me good in spite of my teeth; as it is none, if I do any man good against my will.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1139

A long course of adversity has this good in it, that though it vexes a body a great while, it comes to harden us at last; as a raw soldier shrinks at every wound, and dreads the surgeon more than an enemy; whereas a _veteran_ sees his own body cut and lamed with as little concern as if it were another’s. With the same resolution should we stand the shock and cure of all misfortunes; we are never the better for our experience, if we have not yet learned to be miserable.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1504

For the time to come there shall be no other contention betwixt you and me, than which shall outdo the other in point of friendship.” After this Augustus made Cinna _consul_, (an honor which he confessed he durst not so much as desire) and Cinna was ever affectionately faithful to him: he made Cæsar his _sole heir_; and this was the _last conspiracy_ that ever was formed against him.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1392

Admit no stories upon these terms: for it is an unjust thing to believe in private and to be angry openly. He that delivers himself up to guess and conjecture runs a great hazard; for there can be no suspicion without some probable grounds; so that without much candor and simplicity, and making the best of every thing, there is no living in society with mankind. Some things that offend us we have by report; others we see or hear.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1076

“But what is it that we would live any longer for?” Not for our pleasures; for those we have tasted over and over, even to satiety: so that there is no point of luxury that is new to us. “But a man would be loth to leave his country and his friends behind him;” that is to say, he would have them go first; for that is the least part of his care. “Well; but I would fain live to do more good, and discharge myself in the offices of life;” as if to die were not the duty of every man that lives.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1113

Next to the encounter of death in our own bodies, the most sensible calamity to an honest man is the death of a friend; and we are not in truth without some generous instances of those that have preferred a friend’s life before their own; and yet this affliction, which by nature is so grievous to us, is by virtue and Providence made familiar and easy.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 934

“Soldiers,” says he, “it is necessary for us to go, but it is not necessary for us to return.” This brief and pertinent harangue was worth ten thousand of the frivolous cavils and distinctions of the schools, which rather break the mind than fortify it; and when it is once perplexed and pricked with difficulties and scruples, there they leave it.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 198

One man may have the advantage of strength, of means, of fortune; and this will undoubtedly operate upon the events of good purposes, but yet without any diminution to the virtue. The good will may be the same in both, and yet one may have the heels of the other; for it is not in a good office as in a course, where he wins the plate that comes first to the post: and even there also, chance has many times a great hand in the success.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1339

For a child in the arms to strike the mother, tear her hair, claw the face of her, and call her names, that goes for nothing with us, because the child knows not what he does. Neither are we moved at the impudence and bitterness of a _buffoon_, though he fall upon his own master as well as the guests; but, on the contrary, we encourage and entertain the freedom.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 1436

But what if it were _safe_ to be _cruel_? Were it not still a sad thing, the very state of such a _government_? A _government_ that bears the image of a _taken city_, where there is nothing but _sorrow_, _trouble_, and _confusion_. Men dare not so much as trust themselves with their friends or with their pleasures. There is not any entertainment so innocent but it affords pretence of crime and danger.

Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency, passage 99

The generation of me was the last part of the benefit: for to live is common with brutes; but to live well is the main business; and that virtue is all my own, saving what I drew from my education. It does not follow that the _first_ benefit must be the _greatest_, because without the first the greatest could never have been. The father gives life to the son but once; but if the son save the father’s life often, though he do but his duty, it is yet a greater benefit.