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Daily Advice 12.30.20
Dec. 30th, 2020 05:30 pmMore On Anger:
If we need to rely on wrath and provocation to enter into any conflict, even if the conflict is worth fighting, the mere fact that we would not have entered into it without the aid of anger proves that we are-- by Seneca's standards-- "slack and cowardly."
"Anger is profitable," it is said, "because it makes men more warlike." By that reasoning, so is drunkenness too; for it makes men forward and bold, and many have been better at the sword because they were the worse for drink. By the same reasoning you must also say that lunacy and madness are essential to strength, since frenzy often makes men more, powerful. But tell me, does not fear, in the opposite way, sometimes make a man bold, and does not the terror of death arouse even errant cowards to fight? But anger, drunkenness, fear, and the like, are base and fleeting incitements and do not give arms to virtue, which never needs the help of vice; they do, however, assist somewhat the mind that is otherwise slack and cowardly.
If we need to rely on wrath and provocation to enter into any conflict, even if the conflict is worth fighting, the mere fact that we would not have entered into it without the aid of anger proves that we are-- by Seneca's standards-- "slack and cowardly."
