quotations about anger
Anger arises for specific and understandable reasons, just like any other emotions, such as happiness and sadness. Emotions are an essential part of being a human being, so if your goal is to completely eliminate anger from your life, forget it! First of all, this would be an impossible task. Second, you wouldn't want to do that, even if you could, any more than you would want to eliminate love, joy, or fear. All emotions have their proper place in a man's life; the experience of emotion is what makes life rich. And there are times when anger is an appropriate reaction to events and people.
THOMAS HARBIN
Beyond Anger
When we're angry, we yell, criticize, judge, shut down, give the silent treatment, isolate or say, "I'm fine!" (without of course being fine). These actions end up hurting both the other person and us. They feel bad, and we might feel worse. We might regret the insults and judgments we hurled their way. We might feel frustrated that we didn't articulate the real reason behind our anger. We might feel frustrated that we weren't heard.
MARGARITA TARTAKOVSKY
"How to Express Your Anger Effectively", PsychCentral, February 26, 2016
Anger is like a flame blazing up and consuming our self-control, making us think, say, and do things that we will probably regret later.
THICH NHAT HANH
Savor
Anger is a form of madness. The words we apply to it show that human beings have long recognized its character. We still speak of angry people as mad. We sometimes say that they are "furious" or "in a fury." Some people are led by anger into the most violent excesses. Anger is one of the commonest causes of murder and it often leads to the infliction of blows, mental or physical, that might easily occasion murder. Oftener still it commits murder without loss of life, by doing to minds and souls mischief irreparable. In one respect anger is like drunkenness. It tends to destroy prudence. Where the intoxication of anger is complete, prudence disappears altogether. Then the way is clear for infamy. There are some people who, when they have once yielded to anger, lose all control. They snatch any weapon within reach. If they cannot strike with things they will strike with words, often far more terrible in their effect. They will make statements that can never be atoned for, that will sting and burn to the end of life.
JOHN DANIEL BARRY
"Anger"
Comprehending the attractiveness of anger is an essential element for its healing. There is something absolutely delicious about finding fault with others and making one's own insecurities the justification for demonizing others. But rather than simply condemning anger or allowing it free rein, we can approach it with gentle inquiry. What values are being threatened? What beliefs are being jeopardized? What control is being wrested from our grasp? And conversely, how good does it feel judging others, punishing them, and relishing in revenge? If anger is delicious, we should be willing to recognize how much we take delight in threatening, haranguing, and demeaning those from whom we feel separate.
ALAN BRISKIN
"How Demagogues Turn Anger Into Collective Poison: The Middle-Finger Party", Huffington Post, March 2, 2016
We've gotten better at acting like anger doesn't exist, but it clearly still does. Letting it out, every now and then, actually is a healthy thing. May it never go too far, one way or the other. Don't hold it all the way in and don't let it all the way out, but a little toot of anger, every now and then, is a nice thing.
JASON SUDEIKIS
"Jason Sudeikis: 'A Toot Of Anger Is A Good Thing'", Contact Music, February 29, 2016
I am angry nearly every day of my life, but I have learned not to show it; and I still try to hope not to feel it, though it may take me another forty years to do it.
LOUISA MAY ALCOTT
Little Women
Never get angry. Never make a threat. Reason with people.
MARIO PUZO
The Godfather
Anger is nature's way of discouraging people from d**king us around.
RORY SUTHERLAND
"Google's driverless car has finally crashed. Might humans be safer?", The Spectator, March 12, 2016
If you don't know what to do when angry, you like most people, have an unfortunate tendency to make up your own interventions. This DIY approach to managing anger is counter-productive and ineffective. It only prolongs the pain and magnifies its destructive consequences. You are pouring salt in your wound.
JUSTIN LIOI
"The Misunderstood Emotion: Getting to Know Your Anger", Good Therapy, March 9, 2016
All anger is actually a vulnerable emotion in disguise. If someone insults you, underneath your anger is pain. If your teen walks in three hours past curfew, underneath your anger is fear and worry. If someone publicly chastens you, underneath your anger is embarrassment. These vulnerable emotions are what you need to communicate, not the anger.
JONATHAN DECKER
"Your Family Expert: Managing anger to connect more and fight less", The Independent, March 1, 2016
As anger is a passing storm, so it comes not gradually and with signs, but like a sudden sweep of wind or black squall.
JAMES VILA BLAKE
Essays
Be ye angry and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath.
EPHESIANS 4:26
We occasionally hear of "righteous anger." We mean anger that is justified by circumstances. But, in a sense, all anger is righteous. That is, all anger justifies itself in the mind of the person who feels the anger. In another sense, there is no such thing as righteous anger. For no anger can really justify itself.
JOHN DANIEL BARRY
"Anger"
Anger supplies arms.
VIRGIL
Aeneid
Never forget what a man has said to you when he was angry. If he has charged you with anything, you had better look it up. Anger is a bow that will shoot sometimes where another feeling will not.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Life Thoughts
If you do not wish to be prone to anger, do not feed the habit; give it nothing which may tend to its increase.
EPICTETUS
Anger is a noble infirmity, the generous failing of the just, the one degree that riseth above zeal, asserting the prerogative of virtue.
MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER
"Of Hatred and Anger"
Anger is poison. You must purge it from your mind or else it will corrupt your better nature.
CHRISTOPHER PAOLINI
Brisingr
The man that is dominated by Anger
Doth not know what is seemly and seeth not the Law;
That man whom Hate doth accompany,
Becometh like unto murky darkness.
GAUTAMA BUDDHA
Iti-Vuttaka