Simple Stoic Advice
Avoiding Raging Against the Good
Avoiding Raging Against the Good
The beautiful thing about Stoic philosophy is the advice contained within it is just as applicable today as it was when it was first written all those many years ago. We can learn a great deal from interpreting the advice provided and using it to our advantage as we go throughout our own lives.
Today’s quote comes to us courtesy of Cicero in the recent translation of De Amicitia by Princeton University Press entitled How to be a Friend:
Quote
“Let’s not be angry at good people, for who will we not be angry at, if we rage at the good?”
Advice
Cicero’s essay about friendships has been characterized as one of the greatest of all time to discuss the topic. Dedicated to Cicero’s friend Atticus, it peels back the layers of what makes a good friend and how one can be a good friend to others.
A lot of what we know about the Roman Republic comes first hand from Cicero in his letters to Atticus. Throughout the letters, we see different sides to Cicero. We see in private correspondence just how he feels of certain situations, showing emotions such as anger and frustration all the way down to love and support.
In speaking of anger, Seneca, in his essay On Anger, writes:
“It is useful for each of us to recognize our own illness and to suppress its strength before it spreads. We should consider what irritates us most of all.”
This is important because as Cicero states, if we are to become angry and lash out at our friends, who do we have left who would be unharmed? Clearly we would lash out at enemies and rage against them, but if we turn that same anger and rage against our friends, those who love and support us, what is left?
Seneca advises in On Anger that:
“A dispute feeds on itself and grabs hold of those who are mired in it. It’s easier to keep aloof from a fight than to extricate oneself.”
When encountering a friend, and the feeling of anger rises, we should attempt to leave the situation as a way of avoiding the underpinnings of anger. If we stay, we risk getting into a fight and saying things we may not necessarily mean. This is what anger does — it sucks us down a hole and is relentless until the anger subsides. Once anger starts, it must wear itself out, and by then, it may be too late.
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