Epictetus on Dealing with Your Own Anger

Stoic teachings about addressing this troublesome emotion

A little while back, I wrote a short piece setting out several insights and resources stemming from Epictetus’ Discourses, focusing specifically on how to understand and deal with anger felt, expressed, and acted upon by other people.

Other Persons’ Anger — Epictetus’ Advice

I also promised a second piece, following up by setting out the practical wisdom Epictetus has to provide us bearing upon our own anger.

Here I will partially make good on that promise, but also kick the proverbial can a bit further down the road by deferring some of the needed discussion to an additional forthcoming third post about Epictetus on the emotion of anger. In that piece, I plan to expand on the considerations and techniques for dealing with anger mentioned at the end of this post, and to examine the importance of reworking habits for managing anger.

The choice to confine this post to a manageable length is a deliberate one, and the main reason for it is that this topic — Epictetus, his discussions of…