Choose a topic from Part 2A:
1. One of the effects of anger is certainly pleasure. An angry person has pleasure in thinking of vengeance. And the active wreaking of vengeance gives pleasure, for it is judged to be the righting of an injustice.
2. More than other passions, anger affects the body, stirring it to force, impetuosity, and vehemence in action; anger is therefore said to "influence the heart" more than the other passions.
3. Because anger is so markedly upsetting, its effect on reason is the more notable. More than any other passion, anger obstructs sound and sane judgment.
4. Another effect of anger is the enraged silence which is called taciturnity. An angry man may control anger in so far as fiery words are concerned, and remain silent although he burns inwardly. This is taciturnity. Again, anger may so suddenly or powerfully overwhelm a man that he cannot say a word; he stands speechless, though seething. This also is a type of taciturnity.
"Shun too great a desire for knowledge, for in it there is much fretting and delusion. Intellectuals like to appear learned and to be called wise. Yet there are many things the knowledge of which does little or no good to the soul, and he who concerns himself about other things than those which lead to salvation is very unwise.
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Thomas á Kempis
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"Before a man chooses his confessor, he ought to think well about it, and pray about it also; but when he has once chosen, he ought not to change, except for most urgent reasons, but put the utmost confidence in his director."
St Philip Neri
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"What good does it do to speak learnedly about the Trinity if, lacking humility, you displease the Trinity? Indeed it is not learning that makes a man holy and just, but a virtuous life makes him pleasing to God. "
Thomas á Kempis
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