Named source · c. 45

Of Anger, Book III Quotes by Seneca: Context & Meanings

2 quotations linked to Of Anger, Book III by or associated with Seneca, with source notes, explanations and related topics.

More by Seneca

About this source

Book III of Seneca’s three-book dialogue On Anger

Topics and ideas

Anger, injury, retaliation, forgiveness, mutual fallibility, peace and the difference between healing and revenge.

English wording

Translation

Aubrey Stewart — Translator · Latin → English

The wording shown here follows the represented English edition or translation.

Why the edition matters

Translations and editions can differ in wording, punctuation and emphasis, so the source attached to each quotation matters when exact phrasing is important.

Read the source

Open a public or archival text connected with these quotations

Use these links when you want to inspect the wording in its wider work or edition.

Primary / edition source · gutenberg.org ↗

Represented passages

2 quotations with source context and meaning

Source identified1

“How far better is it to heal an injury than to avenge it?”

Seneca · Of Anger, Book III · c. 45

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.

Source identified2

“There is only one thing which can afford us peace, and that is to agree to forgive one another.”

Seneca · Of Anger, Book III · c. 45

Seneca treats mutual pardon as a practical response to universal human fallibility: social peace is impossible if every imperfect person insists on answering each offence with continued anger.

Source note: On Anger, Book III, section XXVI, Aubrey Stewart translation in Minor Dialogues, Project Gutenberg #64576. Book III is a division of the same On Anger work as the existing Book II page and is normalized to one Seneca source family.