What Would Seneca Say (About Anger)?

     The Dhammapada, which is part of the Theravada Pali Canon, takes a negative view of anger: it is something to give up, to keep in check, and to conquer; Buddhists are advised to guard against anger in body, in speech, and in mind.
     Despite the importance of moderation to the classical Greek philosopher Aristotle, he was surprisingly tolerant of anger. In Book IV of his Ethics, he argued that the excess of anger is irascibility, the mean is patience, and the deficiency is servility. For Aristotle, it is commendable to be angry at the right things, with the right people, in the right way, and at the right time.
     However, not all thinkers in the Western intellectual tradition agreed with Aristotle's position on anger. For example, Lucius Annaeus Seneca was a  Roman philosopher/dramatist/politician (not necessarily in that order). According to the recent translation by Robert Kaster, Seneca begins his treatise On Anger -- written in the first century of the Common Era -- by noting that "... some wise men have said that anger is a brief madness: for it's no less lacking in self-control, forgetful of decency, unmindful of personal ties, unrelentingly intent on its goal, shut off from rational deliberation, stirred for no substantial reason, unsuited to determining what's fair and true ... ." Seneca's disagreement was not with Aristotle's definition of anger, but rather with Aristotle's view that anger could be a spur to virtuous action. For Seneca, however, anger was not acceptable under any circumstances because of its "damaging effects."
    Almost 2,000 years after Seneca wrote these words, President Trump erupts in angry outbursts on an almost daily basis -- on Twitter and elsewhere -- and seems barely able to keep his temper under control on other days. He would do well to heed the following words from Seneca regarding anger:
          "... no pestilence has been more costly for the human race. Butchery and poisoning, suits and counter suits, cities destroyed, entire nations wiped out, ... dwellings put to the torch, then the blaze, unchecked by the city walls, turning vast tracks of land bright with the attacking flame. Consider the cities of vast renown whose foundation stones can now hardly be made out: anger cast these cities down. Consider the wastelands, deserted, without an inhabitant for many miles: anger emptied them. ... consider whole assemblies mowed down, the common folk butchered when an army was loosed upon them, whole peoples condemned to die in promiscuous slaughter ... ."

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References: 
     Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (Penguin Classics, London, 2004; original translation by Thomson, revised by Tredennick, introduction by Barnes), see pages 100-103.
     Gil Fronsdal, The Dhammapada: A New Translation of the Buddhist Classic with Annotations (Shambhala, Boulder, 2006), see Verses 221-234 on pages 59-61.
     Seneca, On Anger, translated by Robert A. Kaster in Anger, Mercy, Revenge (University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 2010); the first quotation above can be found in Book 1, on page 14; the second quotation is also in Book 1, on page 15; see also Book 3, on page 64.