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Virtue and Vice
525. Anger
"From anger, in its full import, protracted into malevolence, and
exerted in revenge, arise, indeed, many of the evils to which the
life of man is exposed. By anger operating upon power are
produced the subversion of cities, the desolation of countries,
the massacre of nations, and all those dreadful astonishing
calamities which fill the histories of the world..."
Johnson: Rambler #11 (April 24, 1750)
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526. Anger
"There is in the world a certain class of mortals, known, and
contentedly known, by the appellation of passionate men,
who imagine themselves entitled by that distinction to be
provoked on every slight occasion, and to vent their rage in
vehement and fierce vociferations, in furious menaces and
licentious reproaches. Their rage, indeed, for the most part,
fumes away in outcries of injury and protestations of vengeance,
and seldom proceeds to actual violence, unless a drawer or
linkboy falls in their way; but they interrupt the quiet of
those that happen to be within the reach of their clamours,
obstruct the course of conversation, and disturb the enjoyment of
society."
Johnson: Rambler #11 (April 24, 1750)
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527. Anger; Pride
"Pride is undoubtedly the original of anger; but pride, like
every other passion, if it once breaks loose from reason,
counteracts its own purposes. A passionate man,* upon the review
of his day, will have very few gratifications to offer to his
pride, when he has considered how his outrages were caused, why
they were borne, and in what they are likely to end at last."
Johnson: Rambler #11 (April 24, 1750)
*"Passionate man": those easily and regularly angered.
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528. Anger
"...sudden bursts of rage generally break out upon small
occasions; for life, unhappy as it is, cannot supply great evils
as frequently as the man of fire thinks it fit to be enraged;
therefore the first reflection upon his violence must show him
that he is mean enough to be driven from his post by every petty
incident, that he is the mere slave of casualty, and that his
reason and virtue are in the power of the wind."
Johnson: Rambler #11 (April 24, 1750)
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529. Anger; Argument; Obstruction;
Posturing
"He that finds his knowledge narrow, and his arguments weak, and
by consequence his suffrage not much regarded, is sometimes in
hope of gaining that attention by his clamours which he cannot
otherwise obtain, and is pleased with remembering that at last he
made himself heard, that he had the power to interrupt those whom
he could not confute, and suspend the decision which he could not
guide."
Johnson: Rambler #11 (April 24, 1750)
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532. Anger; Old Age
"Nothing is more despicable than the old age of a passionate
man.* When the vigour of youth fails him, and his amusements
pall with frequent repetition, his occasional rage sinks by decay
of strength into peevishness; that peevishness, for want of
novelty and variety, becomes habitual; the world falls off from
around him, and he is left, as Homer expresses it, to devour his
own heart in solitude and contempt."
Johnson: Rambler #11 (April 24, 1750)
*"Passionate man": those easily and regularly angered.
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622. Anger; Marriage
"Wives and husbands are ... incessantly complaining of each
other; and there would be reason for imagining that almost every
house was infested with perverseness or oppression beyond human
sufferance, did we not know upon how small occasions some minds
burst into lamentations and reproaches, and how naturally every
animal revenges his pain upon those who happen to be near,
without any nice examination of its cause. We are always willing
to fancy ourselves within a little of happiness, and when, with
repeated efforts, we cannot reach it, persuade ourselves that it
is intercepted by an ill-paired mate, since, if we could find any
other obstacle, it would be our own fault that it was not
removed."
Johnson: Rambler #45 (August 21, 1750)
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823. Anger; Vanity
"The man who threatens the world is always ridiculous; for the
world can easily go on without him, and in a short time will
cease to miss him."
Johnson: Pope (Lives of the Poets)
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