“The greatest remedy for anger is delay.”
Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist
A collection of quotes on the topic of cry, anger, people, doing.
“The greatest remedy for anger is delay.”
Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist
“Humor is almost always anger with its make-up on.”
Stephen King book Bag of Bones
Source: Bag of Bones
“Where there is anger there is always pain underneath.”
Eckhart Tolle book The Power of Now
Source: The Power of Now
“In anger we should refrain both from speech and action.”
Pythagoras (-585–-495 BC) ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher
As quoted in Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, "Pythagoras", Sect. 23–24, as translated in Dictionary of Quotations (1906) by Thomas Benfield Harbottle, p. 370
“Anger makes one not only malign but sharp-sighted.”
Stefan Zweig book Beware of Pity
Beware of Pity (1939)
“Anger is a weed; hate is the tree.”
Aurelius Augustinus (354–430) early Christian theologian and philosopher
58
Sermons
Zack de la Rocha (1970) American musician, poet rapper and activist best known as the vocalist and lyricist of rap metal band Rage Again…
"Freedom" - "borrowed from the african american freedom fighter "Malcolm X".
Song lyrics, Rage Against the Machine (1992)
“It is harder to fight against pleasure than against anger.”
Heraclitus (-535) pre-Socratic Greek philosopher
As quoted by Aristotle in Nicomachean Ethics, Book II (1105a)
“Anger - a better alternative to caffeine.”
Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo
Source: Magic Rises
Osamu Tezuka (1928–1989) Japanese cartoonist and animator
Quoted in Helen McCarthy, Osamu Tezuka: God of manga , translated by Fabio Deotto, Edizioni BD, 2010, back cover.
Michael Jackson (1958–2009) American singer, songwriter and dancer
Also used at his funeral (3 Sep. 2009) invitation. Quoted in "Dead stars and classic art will surround Michael Jackson " in CNN.com/entertainment (03 July 2009) http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/09/03/michael.jackson.funeral/index.html#cnnSTCOther1
“At the core of all anger is a need that is not being fulfilled.”
Marshall B. Rosenberg (1934–2015) American psychologist
Source: Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life
Sun Tzu (-543–-495 BC) ancient Chinese military general, strategist and philosopher from the Zhou Dynasty
Translation by Lionel Giles
Source: The Art of War, Chapter XII · Attacking with Fire
Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist
Source: The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation
Dante Alighieri book Inferno
Canto III, lines 22–30 (tr. Mandelbaum).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Inferno
Thomas Fuller (1608–1661) English churchman and historian
Life of the Duke of Alva (1642). Compare: "A fiery soul, which, working out its way, Fretted the pigmy-body to decay, And o'er-inform'd the tenement of clay", John Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel, part i. line 156.
“The person who obeys the unique God, will not fear the anger of the creatures of God.”
Ali al-Hadi (829–868) imam
Ibn Shu’ba al-Harrani, Tuhaf al-'Uqul, p. 10.
Religious Wisdom
Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531) leader of the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland, and founder of the Swiss Reformed Churches
Letter to Capito, January 1, 1526 (Staehelin, Briefe ausder Reformationseit, p. 20), ibid, p. 249-250
Peter Gabriel (1950) English singer-songwriter, record producer and humanitarian
Shaking the Tree
Song lyrics, Shaking the Tree (1990)
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Russian writer
Nobel lecture (1970)
Context: Who will co-ordinate these value scales, and how? Who will create for mankind one system of interpretation, valid for good and evil deeds, for the unbearable and the bearable, as they are differentiated today? Who will make clear to mankind what is really heavy and intolerable and what only grazes the skin locally? Who will direct the anger to that which is most terrible and not to that which is nearer? Who might succeed in transferring such an understanding beyond the limits of his own human experience? Who might succeed in impressing upon a bigoted, stubborn human creature the distant joy and grief of others, an understanding of dimensions and deceptions which he himself has never experienced? Propaganda, constraint, scientific proof — all are useless. But fortunately there does exist such a means in our world! That means is art. That means is literature.
They can perform a miracle: they can overcome man's detrimental peculiarity of learning only from personal experience so that the experience of other people passes him by in vain. From man to man, as he completes his brief spell on Earth, art transfers the whole weight of an unfamiliar, lifelong experience with all its burdens, its colours, its sap of life; it recreates in the flesh an unknown experience and allows us to possess it as our own.
And even more, much more than that; both countries and whole continents repeat each other's mistakes with time lapses which can amount to centuries. Then, one would think, it would all be so obvious! But no; that which some nations have already experienced, considered and rejected, is suddenly discovered by others to be the latest word. And here again, the only substitute for an experience we ourselves have never lived through is art, literature. They possess a wonderful ability: beyond distinctions of language, custom, social structure, they can convey the life experience of one whole nation to another. To an inexperienced nation they can convey a harsh national trial lasting many decades, at best sparing an entire nation from a superfluous, or mistaken, or even disastrous course, thereby curtailing the meanderings of human history.
Rafael Nadal (1986) Spanish tennis player
Uncle Toni Nadal on nephew Rafael. http://nadal-rafael.tripod.com/id9.html
“If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow”
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) Austrian poet and writer
“Anger is stupid, and stupidity will kill you more surely than your opponent's blade.”
Patricia Briggs (1965) American writer
Source: Dragon Bones
“I could feel my anger dissipating as the miles went by--you can't run and stay mad!”
Kathrine Switzer (1947) American distance runner
Source: Marathon Woman: Running the Race to Revolutionize Women's Sports
Jan Hus (1369–1415) Czech linguist, religion writer, theologist, university educator and science writer
Source: A Companion to Jan Hus (2015), pp. 190-191.
John Chrysostom (349–407) important Early Church Father
Homilies on the Gospel of Saint John http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf114.iv.lxxxiii.html, Homily LXXXI
Elliot Rodger (1991–2014) American spree killer
My Twisted World (2014), Thoughts at 17
Jimi Hendrix (1942–1970) American musician, singer and songwriter
Bold as Love
Song lyrics, Axis: Bold as Love (1967)
Lewis Carroll book Sylvie and Bruno
Source: Sylvie and Bruno Concluded (1893), Chapter 19: A Fairy Duet
Barbara De Angelis (1951) American psychologist
From Are You the One for Me? (1992)
“The whole world would have been destroyed if compassion did not put an end to anger.”
Perierat totus orbis, nisi iram finiret misericordia.
Marcus Annaeus Seneca (-54–39 BC) Roman scholar
Book I, Chapter I; slightly modified translation from Michael Winterbottom, Declamations of the Elder Seneca (London: Heinemann, 1974) vol. 1 p. 33
Controversiae
Jeff Buckley (1966–1997) American singer, guitarist and songwriter
From Grace EPK (Electronic Press Kit)
Kathrine Switzer (1947) American distance runner
Source: http://kathrineswitzer.com/about-kathrine/1967-boston-marathon-the-real-story/
“Anger and desire of vengeance are not going to be of much help to you in your administration.”
Ali book Nahj al-Balagha
Nahj al-Balagha, Letter 53: An order to Malik Al-Ashtar
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Groundbreaking Ceremony (13 November 2006)
2006
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2008, A More Perfect Union (March 2008)
“But he whom reason, not anger, animates is a peer of the gods.”
Dis proximus ille est,<br/>quem ratio non ira movet.
Claudian (370–404) Roman Latin poet
Dis proximus ille est,<br>quem ratio non ira movet. <br class="br"> Panegyricus dictus Manlio Theodoro consuli, lines 227-228 http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Claudian/Manlio_Theodoro*.html#227.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States
Source: 1910s, Theodore Roosevelt — An Autobiography (1913), Ch. VIII : The New York Governorship
Solomon (-990–-931 BC) king of Israel and the son of David
Proverbs 19:11, New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures
Martin Luther (1483–1546) seminal figure in Protestant Reformation
Statement of 25 August 1538, in Table-Talk, as translated by William Hazlitt (1857), DLXXVII
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
Regarding the treatment of former Confederate soldiers. In Richmond, Virginia (April 4, 1865), as quoted in Incidents and Anecdotes of the Civil War https://archive.org/download/incidentsanecdot00port/incidentsanecdot00port.pdf (1885), by David Dixon Porter, p. 312 <br class="br">1860s, Tour of Richmond (1865)
Aurelius Augustinus (354–430) early Christian theologian and philosopher
As quoted in Spirituality and Liberation: Overcoming the Great Fallacy (1988) by Robert McAfee Brown, p. 136
Disputed
Ozzy Osbourne (1948) English heavy metal vocalist and songwriter
Dreamer, written by Ozzy Osbourne, Marti Frederiksen and Mick Jones.
Song lyrics, Down to Earth (2001)
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
"Obama asks country to come together right now" in The Boston Globe (16 March 2008) http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/03/16/obama_asks_country_to_come_together_right_now/ <br class="br">2008
Clandestine Culture (1970) American artist
http://artdistricts.com/clandestine-culture-between-street-art-and-social-activism/
Thomas De Quincey book Confessions of an English Opium-Eater
Pt. I.
Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1822-1856)
Elliot Rodger (1991–2014) American spree killer
My Twisted World (2014), Thoughts at 19, Understanding of Relationships
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2015, Remarks after the Umpqua Community College shooting (October 2015)
“To anger a conservative, lie to him. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States
First attributed to Roosevelt on the internet in recent years, there is no evidence he ever said this, as noted in "Teddy Roosevelt on Conservatives vs. Liberals", by Dan Evon at snopes.com (3 June 2016) http://www.snopes.com/teddy-roosevelt-anger-a-liberal-quote and at Teddy Roosevelt once said, “To anger a conservative, lie to him. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.” (14 June 2016) https://www.truthorfiction.com/teddy-roosevelt-anger-conservative-lie-quote <br class="br">Misattributed
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2008, A More Perfect Union (March 2008)
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
1860s, Thanksgiving Proclamation (1863)
Context: In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theater of military conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battlefield; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.
Francis Bacon book Essays
Of Anger
Essays (1625)
Context: To seek to extinguish anger utterly, is but a bravery of the Stoics. We have better oracles: Be angry, but sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your anger. Anger must be limited and confined, both in race and in time.
“If you do not wish to be prone to anger, do not feed the habit”
Epictetus (50–138) philosopher from Ancient Greece
Golden Sayings of Epictetus
Context: If you have given way to anger, be sure that over and above the evil involved therein, you have strengthened the habit, and added fuel to the fire. If overcome by a temptation of the flesh, do not reckon it a single defeat, but that you have also strengthened your dissolute habits. Habits and faculties are necessarily affected by the corresponding acts... One who has had fever, even when it has left him, is not in the same condition of health as before, unless indeed his cure is complete. Something of the same sort is true also of diseases of the mind. Behind, there remains a legacy of traces and of blisters: and unless these are effectually erased, subsequent blows on the same spot will produce no longer mere blisters, but sores. If you do not wish to be prone to anger, do not feed the habit; give it nothing which may tend to its increase. At first, keep quiet and count the days when you were not angry: 'I used to be angry every day, then every other day: next every two, next every three days!' and if you succeed in passing thirty days, sacrifice to the Gods in thanksgiving. (75).
“Peace has a special friend: Joy. Anger has only one friend: Destruction.”
Sri Chinmoy (1931–2007) Indian writer and guru
April 27
Meditations: Food For The Soul (1970)
Context: Anger has an enemy: Peace. Peace has no enemy. Peace has a special friend: Joy. Anger has only one friend: Destruction.
Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536) Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, and theologian
De pueris statim ac liberaliter instituendis declamatio (1529), translated by Beert C. Verstraete as On Education for Children, in The Erasmus Reader (University of Toronto Press: 1990), p. 73
Epicurus (-341–-269 BC) ancient Greek philosopher
1
Variant translations:
What is blessed and indestructible has no troubles itself, nor does it give trouble to anyone else, so that it is not affected by feelings of anger or gratitude. For all such things are signs of weakness. (Hutchinson)
The blessed and immortal is itself free from trouble nor does it cause trouble for anyone else; therefore it is not constrained either by anger of favour. For such sentiments exist only in the weak (O'Connor)
A blessed and imperishable being neither has trouble itself nor does it cause trouble for anyone else; therefore, it does not experience anger nor gratitude, for such feelings signify weakness. (unsourced translation)
Sovereign Maxims
Greta Thunberg (2003) Swedish climate change activist
Twitter post https://twitter.com/Ocasio2018/status/1076890299773976582 (23 December 2018) <br class="br">2018
Pierre Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865) French politician, mutualist philosopher, economist, and socialist
Preface
What is Property? (1840)
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)
As quoted in "Ronald Reagan and Race" https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/08/ronald-reagan-and-race-richard-nixon-tape/ (August 2019), by Jay Nordlinger, National Review <br class="br">1980s, First term of office (1981–1985)
Umar (585–644) Second Caliph of Rashidun Caliphate and a companion of Muhammad
Umar ibn al-Khattab, Vol. 2, p. 389-390, also quoted in At-Tabqaat ul-Kabir, Vol. 3, p. 339
Last Advise
John Cassian (360–435) Christian monk and theologian
Book VIII, Chapter V
Institutes of the Coenobia (c. 420 AD)
Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist
Source: Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames
“Anger exceeding limits causes fear and excessive kindness eliminates respect.”
Euripidés (-480–-406 BC) ancient Athenian playwright
“How is it possible to hold such anger against something you don't believe in?”
Francine Rivers book An Echo in the Darkness
Source: An Echo in the Darkness
Mitch Albom book The Five People You Meet in Heaven
Variant: Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside. We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do, we do to ourselves.
Source: The Five People You Meet in Heaven (2003)
“Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
“You cannot repress anger or love, or avoid feeling them, and you should not try.”
Robert Greene book The 48 Laws of Power
Source: The 48 Laws of Power