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“They are laughing at you, Diogenes,” he answered, “But I am not laughed down.” (PLUTARCH)

“They are laughing at you, Diogenes,” he answered, “But I am not laughed down.” (PLUTARCH)

But when I contemplated the origin of anger itself, I observed that different persons are liable to anger from different causes; yet in the case of practically all of them there is present a belief that they are being despised or neglected. For this reason we should assist those who endeavour to avoid anger, by removing as far as possible the act that rouses wrath from any suspicion of contempt or arrogance and by imputing it to ignorance or necessity or emotion or mischance. So Sophocles:
O king, not even the reason Nature gives
Stays with the unfortunate, but goes astray;
and so likewise Agamemnon ascribes the taking away of Briseïs to divine infatuation:
I wish again to make amends, to give
You countless ransom. (Homer)
Supplication, indeed, is the act of one who does not despise; and when he that has done an injury shows himself humble, he removes all notion of contempt. But the man in a rage should not wait for such humility, but should take to himself the reply of Diogenes: when someone said to him, “They are laughing at you, Diogenes,” he answered, “But I am not laughed down.” Just so the angry man should not consider himself despised, but rather despise the man who gave the offence as acting from weakness or rashness, carelessness or illiberality, dotage or childishness. But such a notion must not on any account be entertained toward servants or friends; for our servants presume on our upright character, our friends on our affection, and both disregard us,  not as being impotent or ineffectual, but because of our reasonableness or our goodwill.

 

 
Plutarch’s Morals
Plutarch

 

Image: https://starryeyedn.wordpress.com/2016/04/18/aggressive-retsuko-rage-against-the-man/



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