Sublime

“There is no more stupefying thing than anger, nothing more bent on its own strength. If successful, none more arrogant, if foiled, none more insane—since it’s not driven back by weariness even in defeat, when fortune removes its adversary it turns its teeth on itself.” —SENECA, ON ANGER, 3.1.5

“Nothing is noble if it’s done unwillingly or under compulsion. Every noble deed is voluntary.” —SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 66.16b

“That on which you so pride yourself will be your ruin,” Montaigne had inscribed on the beam of his ceiling. It’s a quote from the playwright Menander, and it ends with “you who think yourself to be someone.”

So it is with respect to the affections of the soul: when you have been angry, you must know that not only has this evil befallen you, but that you have also increased the habit, and in a manner thrown fuel upon fire.

as Seneca says, to submit yourself to reason is the way to make everything else submit to you--si tibi vis omnia subjicere, te subjice rationi.

Seneca famously wrote that “each man regards nothing as cheaper than himself.”

“Let us get used to dining out without the crowds, to being a slave to fewer slaves, to getting clothes only for their real purpose, and to living in more modest quarters.” —SENECA, ON TRANQUILITY OF MIND, 9.3b

“It is possible to curb your arrogance, to overcome pleasure and pain, to rise above your ambition, and to not be angry with stupid and ungrateful people—yes, even to care for them.” —MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 8.8