quotations about anger
Anger is simply our way of reminding ourselves that we have a problem that needs attention.
FREDERIC LUSKIN
Forgive for Good
When anger rushes unrestrained to action, like a hot steed, it stumbles on its way; the man of thought strikes deepest and strikes safely.
R. SAVAGE
attributed, Day's Collacon
Fire hath its force abated by water, not by wind; and anger must be allayed by cold words, and not by blustering threats.
ANNE BRADSTREET
Meditations Divine and Moral
Anger is certainly a kind of baseness; as it appears well in the weakness of those subjects in whom it reigns; children, women, old folks, sick folks. Only men must beware, that they carry their anger rather with scorn, than with fear; so that they may seem rather to be above the injury, than below it; which is a thing easily done, if a man will give law to himself in it.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Anger"
Anger comes sometimes upon us, but we go oftener to it, and, instead of rejecting it, we invite it: Yet it is a vice that carries with it neither pleasure nor profit, neither honour nor security.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
Anger can sometimes just be the loudest thing in the room. If there are other issues going on (spoiler alert: there are almost always other issues going on), these can be conveniently drowned out by the destructiveness and imperativeness of the anger. I say "conveniently" because anger is often the easiest emotion to notice and to deal with. It's also perhaps the scariest.
JUSTIN LIOI
"The Misunderstood Emotion: Getting to Know Your Anger", Good Therapy, March 9, 2016
Not to be provok'd is best: But if mov'd, never correct till the fume is spent; for every stroke our fury strikes, is sure to hit our selves at last.
WILLIAM PENN
Some Fruits of Solitude
The wrath that on conviction subsides into mildness, is the wrath of a generous mind.
JOHANN KASPAR LAVATER
Aphorisms on Man
Anger is generally seen as an unwelcome presence in our midst, however natural it may be. Although each person, and each society, is charged with how anger is to be appropriately channeled, the denial of anger, or its continuous repression, is a deep source of our psychopathology and will invariably seek its expression in a less healthful fashion.
JAMES HOLLIS
Why Good People Do Bad Things
When we are angry, our anger is our very self. To suppress or chase away our anger is to suppress or chase away ourselves. When anger is born, we can be aware that anger is an energy in us, and we can change that energy into another kind of energy. If we want to transform it, first we have to know how to accept it.
THICH NHAT HANH
Savor
To contain anger from mischief, though it take hold of a man, there be two things, whereof you must have special caution. The one, of extreme bitterness of words, especially if they be aculeate and proper; for cummunia maledicta are nothing so much; and again, that in anger a man reveal no secrets; for that, makes him not fit for society. The other, that you do not peremptorily break off, in any business, in a fit of anger; but howsoever you show bitterness, do not act anything, that is not revocable.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Anger", The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral