100 Inspirational Quotes on Anger: Wisdom to Transform Your Emotions

"We are primarily responsible for our anger, but we believe very naively that if we can say something or do something to punish the other person, we will suffer less. This kind of belief should be uprooted. Because whatever you do or say in a state of anger will only cause more damage in the relationship. Instead, we should try not to do anything or say anything when we are angry."

- Thich Nhat Hanh

"Anybody can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not within everybody's power and is not easy."

- Aristotle

"When you look deeply into your anger, you will see that the person you call your enemy is also suffering. As soon as you see that, the capacity for accepting and having compassion for them is there."

- Thich Nhat Hanh

"Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured."

- Mark Twain

"Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned."

- Buddah

"Anybody can become angry — that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way — that is not within everybody's power and is not easy."

- Aristotle

"You are not the anger, you are the awareness behind the anger. Realize this and the anger will no longer control you."

- Eckhart Tolle

"Anger is like a storm rising up from the bottom of your consciousness. When you feel it coming, turn your focus to your breath."

- Thich Nhat Hanh

"When you assume negative intent, you're angry. If you take away that anger and assume positive intent, you will be amazed. Your emotional quotient goes up because you are no longer almost random in your response."

- Indra Nooyi

"Pain will subside only when we acknowledge it and care for it. Addressing it with love and compassion would take only a minuscule percentage of the energy it takes to fight it, but approaching pain head-on is terrifying. Most of us were not taught how to recognize pain, name it, and be with it. Our families and culture believed that the vulnerability that it takes to acknowledge pain was weakness, so we were taught anger, rage, and denial instead. But what we know now is that when we deny our emotion, it owns us. When we own our emotion, we can rebuild and find our way through the pain."

- Brené Brown

"When angry, count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred."

- Thomas Jefferson

"The greatest remedy for anger is delay."

- Seneca

"Instead of catching ourselves after we first felt angry, we develop a visceral sensitivity to what's happening within us in the moment and through mindfulness, we can shape our reaction right away."

- Sharon Salzberg

"express anger requires full consciousness of our need […] Anger, however, co-opts our energy by directing it toward punishing people rather than meeting our needs. Instead of engaging in “righteous indignation,” I recommend connecting empathically with our own needs or those of others."

- Marshall Rosenberg

"Anger is a wind which blows out the lamp of the mind."

- Robert Green Ingersoll

"For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The opposite of anger is not calmness, its empathy."

- Mehmet Oz

"Boredom, anger, sadness, or fear are not 'yours', not personal. They are conditions of the human mind. They come and go. Nothing that comes and goes is you."

- Eckhart Tolle

"Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness."

- James Thurber

"As far as having peace within myself, the one way I can do that is forgiving the people who have done wrong to me. It causes more stress to build up anger. Peace is more productive."

- Rodney King

"I realized that if my thoughts immediately affect my body, I should be careful about what I think. Now if I get angry, I ask myself why I feel that way. If I can find the source of my anger, I can turn that negative energy into something positive."

- Yoko Ono

"Holding on to anger, resentment and hurt only gives you tense muscles, a headache, and a sore jaw from clenching your teeth. Forgiveness gives you back the laughter and the lightness in your life."

- Joan Lunden

"Anger always comes from frustrated expectations."

- Elliott Larson

"When anger rises, think of the consequences."

- Confucius

"Patience is the direct antithesis of anger."

- Allan Lokos

"When you are angry, be still and do not speak."

- Lailah Gifty Akita

"Scores of studies have shown that venting doesn’t soothe anger; it fuels it."

- Susan Cain

"How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it."

- Marcus Aurelius

"If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow."

- Chinese Proverb

"He who angers you conquers you."

- Elizabeth Kenny

"Anger is one letter short of danger."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die."

- Malachy McCourt

"Anger blows out the lamp of the mind."

- Robert G. Ingersoll

"Anger is a killing thing: it kills the man who angers, for each rage leaves him less than he had been before – it takes something from him."

- Louis L’Armour

"Don’t waste your time in anger, regrets, worries, and grudges. Life is too short to be unhappy."

- Roy T. Bennett

"Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean."

- Maya Angelou

"It is wise to direct your anger towards problems -- not people; to focus your energies on answers -- not excuses."

- William Arthur Ward

"Anger is like flowing water; there's nothing wrong with it as long as you let it flow. Hate is like stagnant water; anger that you denied yourself the freedom to feel, the freedom to flow; water that you gathered in one place and left to forget. Stagnant water becomes dirty, stinky, disease-ridden, poisonous, deadly; that is your hate. On flowing water travels little paper boats; paper boats of forgiveness. Allow yourself to feel anger, allow your waters to flow, along with all the paper boats of forgiveness. Be human."

- C. JoyBell C.

"Usually when people are sad, they don't do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change."

- Malcolm X

"Anger is just anger. It isn't good. It isn't bad. It just is. What you do with it is what matters. It's like anything else. You can use it to build or to destroy. You just have to make the choice." Constructive anger," the demon said, her voice dripping sarcasm. Also known as passion," I said quietly. "Passion has overthrown tyrants and freed prisoners and slaves. Passion has brought justice where there was savagery. Passion has created freedom where there was nothing but fear. Passion has helped souls rise from the ashes of their horrible lives and build something better, stronger, more beautiful."

- Jim Butcher

"Learn this from me. 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."

- Mitch Albom

"Let today be the day you stop being haunted by the ghost of yesterday. Holding a grudge & harboring anger/resentment is poison to the soul. Get even with people...but not those who have hurt us, forget them, instead get even with those who have helped us."

- Steve Maraboli

"It is wise to direct your anger towards problems, not people—to focus your energies on answers, not excuses."

- William Arthur Ward

"When you hold on to anger and unforgiveness, you can't move forward."

- Mary J. Blige

"Every thought, word, and action plants seeds in the garden of your life. Are you planting seeds of love, compassion, peace, or those of anger, resentment and dissatisfaction? Choose wisely and tend your garden well."

- John Bruna

"So other people hurt me? That's their problem. Their character and actions are not mine."

- Marcus Aurelius

"Anger is the go-to feeling for most people because it’s outward-directed - angrily blaming others can feel deliciously sanctimonious. But often it’s only the tip of the iceberg, and if you look beneath the surface, you’ll glimpse submerged feelings you either weren’t aware of or didn’t want to show: fear, helplessness, envy, loneliness, insecurity. And if you can tolerate these deeper feelings long enough to understand them and listen to what they’re telling you, you’ll not only manage your anger in more productive ways, you also won’t be so angry all the time."

- Lori Gottlieb

"Inappropriate should and shouldn’t statements […] feed your anger. When you find that some people’s actions are not to your liking, you tell yourself they “shouldn’t” have done what they did, or they “should have” done something they failed to do […] When you insist on perfection from others, you will make yourself miserable."

- David D. Burns

"When we are in pain or fear, anger and hate are our go to emotions."

- Brené Brown

"Anger is inevitable when our lives consist of giving in and going along; when we assume responsibility for other people’s feelings and reactions; when we relinquish our primary responsibility to proceed with our own growth and ensure the quality of our own lives; when we behave as if having a relationship is more important than having a self."

- Harriet Lerner

"When a person’s speech is full of anger, it is because he or she suffers deeply."

- Thich Nhat Hanh

"Every criticism, judgment, diagnosis, and expression of anger is the tragic expression of an unmet need."

- Marshall Rosenberg

"Another distortion characteristic of anger-generating thoughts is mind reading – you invent motives that explains to your satisfaction why the other person did what he or she did. These hypotheses are frequently erroneous because they will not describe the actual thoughts and perceptions that motivated the other person."

- David D. Burns

"Speak when you are angry and you'll make the best speech you'll ever regret."

- Ambrose Bierce

"Anger is the feeling that makes your mouth work faster than your mind."

- Evan Esar

"Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame."

- Benjamin Franklin

"Anger is only one letter short of danger."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Anger is temporary but words said in anger aren't."

- Marion Bekoe

"When you say something really unkind, when you do something in retaliation, your anger increases. You make the other person suffer, and he will try hard to say or to do something back to get relief from his suffering. That is how conflict escalates."

- Thich Nhat Hanh

"Most misunderstandings in the world could be avoided if people would simply take the time to ask, 'What else could this mean?'"

- Shannon L. Alder

"Steps to expressing anger: 1. Stop. Breathe. 2. Identify our judgmental thoughts. 3. Connect with our needs. 4. Express our feelings and unmet needs."

- Marshall B. Rosenberg

"Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be."

- Thomas à Kempis

"How satisfying it is to dismiss and block out any upsetting or foreign impression, and immediately to have peace in all things."

- Marcus Aurelius

"There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot."

- Plato

"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."

- Viktor E. Frankl

"People are afraid that if they let go of their anger and righteousness and wrath, and look at their own feelings - and even see the good in a bad person - they're going to lose the energy they need to do something about the problem. But actually, you get more strength and energy by operating from a place of love and concern. You can be just as tough, but more effectively tough."

- Robert Thurman

"Anger ... it's a paralyzing emotion ... you can't get anything done. People sort of think it's an interesting, passionate, and igniting feeling — I don't think it's any of that — it's helpless ... it's absence of control — and I need all of my skills, all of the control, all of my powers ... and anger doesn't provide any of that — I have no use for it whatsoever."

- Toni Morrison

"In a moment of anger, think about the consequences of your actions. In a moment of patience, think about the consequences of your reactions."

- Zig Ziglar

"The best fighter is never angry."

- Lao Tzu

"Where there is anger, there is always pain underneath."

- Eckhart Tolle

"At the core of all anger is a need that is not being fulfilled."

- Marshall Rosenberg

"Much everyday anger results when we confuse our own personal wants with general moral codes. When you get mad at someone and you claim they are acting “unfairly,” more often than not what is really going on is that they are acting “fairly” relative to a set of standards and a frame of reference that is different from yours."

- David D. Burns

"The opposite of anger is not calmness, it’s empathy."

- Mehmet Oz

"Walking is man’s best medicine."

- Hippocrates

"Your attitude is like a box of crayons that color your world. Constantly color your picture gray, and your picture will always be bleak. Try adding some bright colors to the picture by including humor, and your picture begins to lighten up."

- Allen Klein

"I want to say somewhere: I've tried to be forgiving. And yet. There were times in my life, whole years, when anger got the better of me. Ugliness turned me inside out. There was a certain satisfaction in bitterness. I courted it. It was standing outside, and I invited it in."

- Nicole Krauss

"Movement is a medicine for creating change in a person’s physical, emotional and mental states."

- Caroline Myss

"Exercise is the most potent and underutilized antidepressant."

- Bill Phillips

"To carry a grudge is like being stung to death by one bee."

- William H. Walton

"Transformation is my favorite game and in my experience, anger and frustration are the result of you not being authentic somewhere in your life or with someone in your life. Being fake about anything creates a block inside of you. Life can’t work for you if you don’t show up as you."

- Jason Mraz

"If you spend your time hoping someone will suffer the consequences for what they did to your heart, then you're allowing them to hurt you a second time in your mind."

- Shannon L. Alder

"Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret."

- Ambrose Bierce

"Two things a man should never be angry at: what he can help, and what he cannot help."

- Thomas Fuller

"No man can think clearly when his fists are clenched."

- George Jean Nathan

"If you want to choose the pleasure of growth, prepare yourself for some pain."

- Irvin Yalom

"If a small thing has the power to make you angry, does that not indicate something about your size?"

- Sydney J. Harris

"I was very fortunate to play sports. All the anger in me went out. I had to do what I had to do. If you stay angry all the time, then you really don't have a good life."

- Willie Mays

"If you kick a stone in anger, you’ll hurt your own foot."

- Korean Proverb

"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So, let us be loving, hopeful, and optimistic. And we'll change the world."

- Jack Layton

"Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools."

- Albert Einstein

"Anger is short-lived madness."

- Horace

"Declare your jihad on thirteen enemies you cannot see -egoism, arrogance, conceit, selfishness, greed, lust, intolerance, anger, lying, cheating, gossiping and slandering. If you can master and destroy them, then you will be read to fight the enemy you can see."

- Al-Ghazzali

"People who fly into a rage always make a bad landing."

- Will Rogers

"When angry, count four. When very angry, swear."

- Mark Twain

"I am awfully greedy; I want everything from life. I want to be a woman and to be a man, to have many friends and to have loneliness, to work much and write good books, to travel and enjoy myself, to be selfish and to be unselfish… You see, it is difficult to get all which I want. And then when I do not succeed I get mad with anger."

- Simone de Beauvoir

"Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight."

- Phyllis Diller

"Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it."

"The more anger towards the past you carry in your heart, the less capable you are of loving in the present."

"The best remedy for a short temper is a long walk."