The wise man expects nothing but is prepared for everything. He understands that the reason we get upset with people is that we expect them to behave properly and get frustrated when they don't.
"The wise man will not be angry with wrongdoers. Why? Because he knows that the wise man is not born but made, he knows that very, very few turn out wise in the whole expanse of time, because he has come to recognize the terms that define human life-and no sane man becomes angry with nature. That would be as pointless as choosing to wonder why fruit doesn't hang on woodland briars, or why rambles and thorn bushes aren't filled with some useful fruit. No one becomes angry when nature defends the vice. And so the wise man - calm and even-tempered in the face of error, not an enemy of wrongdoers but one who sets them straight - leaves his house daily with this thought in mind: "I will encounter many people who are devoted to drink, many who are lustful, many who are ungrateful, many who are greedy, many who are driven by the demons of ambition." All such behaviors he will regard as kindly as a doctor does his own patients."
No sane man becomes angry with nature
No sane man becomes angry with nature
No sane man becomes angry with nature
The wise man expects nothing but is prepared for everything. He understands that the reason we get upset with people is that we expect them to behave properly and get frustrated when they don't.
"The wise man will not be angry with wrongdoers. Why? Because he knows that the wise man is not born but made, he knows that very, very few turn out wise in the whole expanse of time, because he has come to recognize the terms that define human life-and no sane man becomes angry with nature. That would be as pointless as choosing to wonder why fruit doesn't hang on woodland briars, or why rambles and thorn bushes aren't filled with some useful fruit. No one becomes angry when nature defends the vice. And so the wise man - calm and even-tempered in the face of error, not an enemy of wrongdoers but one who sets them straight - leaves his house daily with this thought in mind: "I will encounter many people who are devoted to drink, many who are lustful, many who are ungrateful, many who are greedy, many who are driven by the demons of ambition." All such behaviors he will regard as kindly as a doctor does his own patients."
- Seneca, On Anger 2.10.6