On Anger

Öfke geçici bir deliliktir. Seneca, neden asla faydalı olmadığını ve başlamadan nasıl durdurulacağını anlatan üç kitap yazdı.

Anger feels like strength, but Seneca calls it temporary madness. In three books addressed to his brother, he traces every stage of rage — its onset, its heat, its aftermath — and argues that it is never useful, not even in war, not even in justice. A general who fights in anger fights badly. A judge who sentences in anger sentences wrongly. Seneca is not asking for coldness. He wants something harder: to pause between the insult and the reaction, to let reason step in before the body does. He offers practical exercises — delay the first word, avoid the angry man, remember your own failures. The Stoics believed emotions were judgments, not forces. To stop anger, you correct the judgment. You remind yourself that the thing that offended you was never worth your peace.