What Do You Look Like Angry?

Getting angry is not a good look. We know this because we see how ugly other people look when they get mad. How childish they seem. How pathetic their gesticulations look, how badly they seem to need our attention. We see how much it undermines their point too—we see their anger and think, “They are acting this way because it’s the only way they hope to win the argument.” We might even worry about someone’s health when we see their anger, fearing that they might have a heart attack. Seneca, referencing a thought from the philosopher Sextius, writes, “it has often been useful to angry people to look in a mirror. The great transformation in themselves has disturbed them; they have no longer recognized themselves, yet how little of their true deformity was displayed in the image reflected in the mirror.”Spot on. Yet, like so many things we are critical of, it’s rare that we apply this gaze back at ourselves. Notice Seneca doesn’t describe how his anger looks in the mirror. In fact, almost nowhere in his essay, Of Anger, does he discuss his own temper and the problems it has caused him. Your job today is to look in the mirror. To think about how unflattering anger is on you, how much it transforms and deforms you when you allow it to take hold. Anger is not a good look on other people, which makes it very unlikely that it is a good look on you. So don’t waste any more time thinking about their bad fashion choices. Fix your own. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. 📢 Share | ⚙️ Manage Subscription

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:06Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to The Daily Stoic, where each day we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living the good life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at dailystoic.com.

• 0:29Ryan Holiday?

  What do you look like angry? Getting angry is not a good look. We know this because we see how ugly other people look when they get mad, how childish they seem, how pathetic their gesticulations look, how badly they seem to need our attention. We see how much it undermines their point, too. We see their anger and think, "They are acting this way because it's the only way they hope to win the argument." We might even worry about someone's health when we see their anger, fearing that they might have a heart attack. Seneca, referencing a thought from the philosopher Sextius, writes, "It has often been useful to angry people to look in the mirror. The great transformation in themselves has disturbed

• 1:12Ryan Holiday?

  them. They no longer recognize themselves." And yet, how little of their true deformity was displayed in the image reflected in the mirror. Spot on. Yet, like so many of the things we are critical of, it's rare that we apply this gaze back at ourselves. Notice, Seneca doesn't describe how his anger looks in the mirror. In fact, almost nowhere in his essay of anger does he discuss his own temper and the problems it has caused him. Your job today is to look in the mirror, to think about how unflattering anger is on you, how much it deforms and transforms you when you allow it to take hold. Anger is not a good look on other people, which makes it very unlikely that it is a good look on

• 1:55Ryan Holiday?

  you. So don't waste any more time thinking about their bad fashion choices. Fix your own. Please check out the Daily Stoic store, where we sell products that we ourselves use that are designed to take these Stoic lessons to the next level. Just go to dailystoic.com/store.