Anger

199. Anger

Anger is also a form of hatred or aversion. But it is directed specifically toward those who have harmed or tried to harm us personally, not just anyone.

Thus, it includes everything that indignation does, with the added element of being based on an action that directly affects us and incites a desire for revenge. This desire almost always accompanies anger, making it directly opposed to gratitude, as indignation is to favor.

However, anger is incomparably more violent than these other three passions because the desire to repel harm and seek vengeance is the most pressing of all.

This desire, combined with self-love, fuels anger with the same agitation of the blood that courage and boldness can cause.

Hatred ensures that it is primarily the bile-rich blood from the spleen and small veins of the liver that receives this agitation and enters the heart, where its abundance and the nature of the bile it contains ignite a sharper and more intense heat than that caused by love or joy.

200. Why Those Whose Anger Makes Them Blush Are Less Dangerous Than Those It Makes Pale

The external signs of this passion vary according to the temperament of individuals and the diversity of other passions that compose or accompany it.

Thus, some people turn pale or tremble when they are angry, while others blush or even cry. It is generally believed that the anger of those who turn pale is more dangerous than that of those who blush.

The reason is that when someone is unwilling or unable to take revenge through actions and resorts only to facial expressions or words, they expend all their heat and strength at the moment they are moved, which causes them to blush. Sometimes regret or self-pity over their inability to take greater revenge causes them to cry.

Conversely, those who hold back and plan a more significant revenge become sad because they feel compelled to act by the offense that enrages them.

They may also fear the consequences of their decision, which initially makes them pale, cold, and trembling. However, when they eventually carry out their revenge, they become all the more heated for having been so cold at the start.

Similarly, fevers that begin with chills tend to be the most intense.

201. There Are 2 Types of Anger

The 2 types are:

1. Very sudden and manifests outwardly but has little effect and can be easily appeased

2. The less apparent at first but festers in the heart and leads to more dangerous outcomes.

Those who are very good-natured and loving are most prone to the first type because their anger does not stem from deep hatred but from a quick aversion that surprises them.

They tend to imagine that all things happen as they believe best. And so they are immediately offended and surprised when events take a different course.

Often, this happens even when the issue does not directly affect them.

This is because they are concerned with others. And so what affects others affects them too.

What might merely provoke indignation in someone else becomes a cause of anger for them.

Their inclination to love fills their hearts with warmth and abundant blood.

The aversion that surprises them stirs a significant amount of bile in their hearts. This causes an intense initial emotional reaction.

However, this reaction does not last long because the intensity of the surprise diminishes.

As soon as they realize the issue that upset them should not have moved them so strongly, they regret their anger.

202. Weak and Base Souls Are Most Prone to the Second Kind of Anger

The second type of anger, where hatred and sadness dominate, is not as apparent initially, except perhaps in how it causes paleness.

However, its intensity grows gradually, driven by the agitation of a burning desire for revenge. This desire stirs the blood, mixing it with bile from the lower part of the liver and the spleen, creating a sharp and biting heat in the heart. Just as the most generous souls feel the deepest gratitude, those with the most pride and the weakest, basest natures are the most prone to this kind of anger. Injuries appear greater to those whose pride inflates their self-importance. Additionally, they value the goods taken from them more highly, as their weak and base souls are more dependent on external possessions.

203. Generosity Serves as a Remedy Against the Excesses of Anger

This passion can be useful in giving us the strength to repel injuries, it is one whose excesses must be avoided with the greatest care.

These excesses disrupt judgment, often leading to mistakes that one later regrets. At times, they even hinder one’s ability to effectively repel the injury that caused the anger.

Since pride is the main driver of anger’s excesses, generosity appears to be the best remedy. By causing one to place little value on possessions that can be taken away and, instead, highly value freedom and self-control—qualities lost when one can be offended by others—generosity leads one to feel only disdain or, at most, indignation toward insults that would normally provoke anger.