Lactantius, Divine Institutes 6.19
The Stoics try to tear the emotions out of a person as if they were diseases, but the Peripatetics oppose them, not only retaining the emotions but also defending them, insisting that nothing in a human being is innate without great reason and providence. That claim would be correct if they knew the true boundaries of each thing. Consequently they call anger the whetstone of virtue, as though no one could fight bravely against an enemy unless stirred by anger, and in doing so they reveal that they understand neither what virtue is nor why God gave anger to humanity.
If anger were given to us so that we might use it to kill people, what could be more inhuman, what more like wild beasts, than the creature God made for communion and innocence? There are three emotions that drive people into every kind of crime: anger, greed, and lust. For this reason the poets spoke of three Furies that agitate human minds: anger craves vengeance, greed craves wealth, lust craves pleasure.
God has set definite limits for all these emotions; if they are crossed and become excessive, they inevitably corrupt their own nature and turn into diseases and vices. The limits are not hard to show: greed is given to acquire the necessities of life, lust to propagate offspring, and the emotion of anger to restrain the sins of those under our authority — that is, so that the younger generation may be shaped to virtue and justice by stricter discipline; without the restraint of fear, licentiousness arises and leads to every shameful act and crime. Thus it is just and necessary to use anger against inferiors, but against equals it is both pernicious and impious: impious because it violates our common humanity, pernicious because resistance forces either the destruction of the other or one's own ruin.
The reason I have given for why the emotion of anger was granted to humanity can be seen from God's own precepts, which command us not to become angry with those who curse and harm us, yet to keep our hands over those who are inferior, correcting sinners with frequent punishments lest useless love and excessive indulgence rear them in evil and vice. Those who are ignorant of reality and of reason have eradicated the emotions given for good use and have let them run beyond what reason demands; from this comes unjust and impious living. They wield anger against equals, producing discord, expulsions, and wars contrary to justice. They wield greed to amass wealth, producing fraud, robbery, and every kind of crime. They wield lust to seize pleasure alone, producing adultery, corruption, and every form of debauchery.
Therefore, whoever restrains those emotions within their proper bounds — a feat impossible for those who do not know God — is patient, is strong, and is just.
Latin
Stoici cum adfectus ei homine tamquam morbos conantur euellere, Peripatetici se opponunt eosque non modo retinent, sed etiam defendunt nihilque in homine esse dicunt quod non magna ratione ac prouidentia sit innatum. recte id quidem, si singularum rerum ueros terminos scirent. itaque hanc ipsam iram cotem dicunt esse uirtutis, tamquam nemo possit aduersus hostem fortiter dimicare, nisi fuerit ira concitatus. quo plane ostendunt nec quid sit uirtus scire se nec cur homini tribuerit iram deus. quae si nobis ideo data est, ut ea utamur ad occidendos homines, quid inmanius homine, quid similius feris beluis existimandum est quam id animal quod ad communionem atque innocentiam deus fecit? tres sunt igitur adfectus qui homines in omnia facinora praecipites agant, ira cupiditas libido. propterea poetae tres Furias esse dixerunt, quae mentes hominum exagitent: ira ultionem desiderat, cupiditas opes, libido uoluptates. sed his omnibus deus certos limites statuit: quos si transcenderint maioresque esse coeperint, necesse est naturam suam deprauent et in morbos ac uitia uertantur. qui autem sint isti limites, non est magni laboris ostendere. cupiditas ad ea conparanda nobis data est quae sunt ad uitam necessaria, libido ad subolem propagandam, irae adfectus ad coercenda peccata eorum qui sunt in nostra potestate, id est ut artiore disciplina minor aetas ad probitatem iustitiamque formetur: quae nisi metu cohibeatur, licentia pariet audaciam, quae ad omne flagitium et facinus euadet. itaque ut ira uti aduersus minores et iustum est et necessarium, sic aduersus pares et perniciosum est et impium: impium, quod uiolatur humanitas, perniciosum, quod illis repugnantibus aut perdere necesse est aut perire. hanc autem quam dixi esse rationem cur homini sit irae adfectus datus, ex ipsius dei praeceptis intellegi potest, qui iubet uti maledicis et laedentibus non irascamur, manus autem nostras supra minores semper habeamus, hoc est ut peccantes eos adsiduis uerberibus corrigamus, ne amore inutili et indulgentia nimia educentur ad malum et ad uitia nutriantur. sed rerum imperiti et rationis ignari eos adfectus qui sunt homini ad usus bonos dati exterminauerunt et latius quam ratio postulat euagantur. inde iniuste atque impie uiuitur. utuntur ira. contra pares: hinc discidia, hinc expulsiones, hinc bella contra iustitiam nata sunt. utuntur cupiditate ad congerendas opes: hinc fraudes, hinc latrocinia, hinc omnia scelerum genera exorta sunt. utuntur libidine ad capiendas tantum uoluptates: hinc stupra, hinc adulteria, hinc corruptelae omnes extiterunt. quicumque igitur illos -adfectus intra fines suos redegerit, quod ignorantes deum facere non possunt, hic patiens, hic fortis, hic iustus est.