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“The greatest remedy for anger is delay.”
Delay interrupts the first impulse of anger and gives judgment time to test whether the perceived offence deserves the reaction it initially provoked.
Source note: On Anger, Book II, section 29.
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“The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.”
Retaliation is rejected when it would reproduce the very behavior one condemns.
Source note: Meditations 6.6; wording varies by translation.
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“Mildness and gentleness are more manly than anger and discontent.”
Strength is located in self-command and humane restraint rather than aggression, making gentleness compatible with courage.
Source note: Meditations, Book XI; George Long translation, in a reflection on responding to wrongdoing without anger.
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“The man did not know the rest of my faults, for he would not have mentioned these only.”
Epictetus answers insult without retaliation by turning attention toward his own fallibility; the joke reduces the critic’s power because reputation is treated as an external judgment rather than something that must be avenged.
Source note: Enchiridion, section 33 in George Long’s public-domain translation, Project Gutenberg #10661. The line is the suggested reply after hearing that someone has spoken ill of you; it is Stoic self-command, not an instruction to accept abuse without boundaries.
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“The rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance.”
Voice: Fictional character · Prospero
Prospero chooses deliberate mercy over retaliation, presenting forgiveness not as weakness but as the more difficult exercise of reason and character.
Source note: The Tempest, Act 5, Scene 1; Prospero decides against vengeance after considering the suffering of his enemies.
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“How far better is it to heal an injury than to avenge it?”
The question contrasts repair with retaliation: vengeance keeps attention fixed on the original wound, whereas healing aims to end the chain of injury rather than reproduce it.
Source note: On Anger, Book III, section XXVII, Aubrey Stewart translation, Project Gutenberg #64576. Seneca immediately argues that revenge consumes time and can place a person in the path of further injuries while still smarting under the first.