Anger Quotes
Helpful Insights on Anger And
Anger Management

The anger quotes on the first part of this page are by Dr. William DeFoore, and many can be found in his book, Anger: Deal With It, Heal With It, Stop It From Killing You. These are followed by quotes from other well known individuals.

We also have quotations to help you with forgiveness and letting go of a relationship when the time has come.

Learn about the definition of anger, anger suppression, how anger relates to love and how it can be part of the way you protect yourself.

Think about these quotes as you read through them, and see if they apply to you or someone in your family, workplace or group of friends. Remember, good people can have anger issues--you just have to learn how to deal with them!

Here are some thought-provoking anger quotes on the basic definition and meaning of anger:

• Anger is an emotion, and all emotions are okay.
• Anger is a powerful feeling that is natural and exists only for the purpose of self-preservation.
• Anger is emotional energy that we can use to create and maintain healthy boundaries.
• Anger does not have to lead to aggression or attack.
• Anger does not have to hurt anyone.
• Anger is energy and strength you can use for powerful action.
• Check out these anger management tips for more information on the definition of anger.

These anger quotes focus on anger as a protective emotion:

• Anger is the emotion of protection and defense.
• Anger is one of the two feelings that come when your safety is threatened. Fear is the other feeling.
• Anger is designed to spur action to protect life, limb and loved ones, and that's why we need lots of good anger quotes. Learn about these helpful anger management techniques.
• Designed for your protection and safety, anger is originally and ultimately your friend and ally. Until you accept anger as a valid part of who you are, you will be at war with your anger and yourself.
• The protection of your precious inner child is therefore always a matter of love more than fear-based anger.
• We have to have anger to survive in a world that is sometimes dangerous, abusive and cruel.

Now for some anger quotes that address anger suppression and the problems it can cause. Simply controlling anger is not enough, and if that is all you do, these are some of the problems you may run into:

• You can only suppress or apply pressure against your anger for so long before it erupts. Periodic eruptions can cause all kinds of problems.
• Your efforts to control your anger may be hurting you. If you don't blow like an overheated pressure cooker you may have an internal explosion. This usually means depression, self-hatred, major illness or all of the above.
• Healthy emotional expression of all kinds, including anger release, can be seen as one of the natural remedies for depression.
• When you suppress anger, you also suppress your fear and your pain, which blocks the flow of emotional energy in your system. Suppression of anger, fear and pain also inhibits your ability to experience love.
• We often hurt others and ourselves when our buried anger erupts to the surface. These eruptions can also show up in other forms, such as the symptoms associated with ADD in adults.
• Buried anger does not go away. We can medicate it, deny it and pretend it's not there for days, weeks, months or even years. It's only a matter of time, however, before it shows up in some form of bitterness, depression, illness, outburst, violent attack or suicide. Buried anger always claims a victim, and the victim is often the person it's buried in.


• One of the many results of suppressed anger can be compulsive-addictive problems such as eating disorders, which often have mental health issues connected with the disorder.

Healthy anger is closely related to the emotion of love, and these anger quotes shed some light on this idea:

• The more love you feel, the more open your heart is. The more open you are, the more vulnerable you become to those you love. This is where the protective emotion of anger comes in.
• Even though anger doesn't look very loving when it comes out, we often feel the most anger in situations where there is the most love.
• Anger moves into violence when it stimulates retaliation and revenge. This is why you must become emotionally healthy, so that you can be awake, aware and compassionate while feeling strong emotions. Only then can you keep yourself and your loved ones safe in emotionally intense situations.
• Expressing anger does not have to result in aggression of any kind. You can channel it into appropriate healthy action. This is the solution to passivity.
• Healthy anger does not look, sound or feel like anger as we have come to know it. The upside of anger is that it is simply powerful energy coming from self love, that you can learn to use in safe, positive ways.

• "Man should forget his anger before he lies down to sleep."

-Mohandas Gandhi

• "He who angers you conquers you."

-Elizabeth Kenny

• "In times of great stress or adversity, it's always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive."

-Lee Iacocca

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

-Maya Angelou

• "For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

• "Anger repressed can poison a relationship as surely as the cruelest words."

-Dr. Joyce Brothers

Do you have some anger quotes of your own to share? Or perhaps a question, or a story to tell? We want to hear what you have to say, so just fill out the form below, and your submission might just become a web page!

Remember, you are your own best anger management resource!

Quotes On Forgiveness: Forgiving is all about letting go of anger. This page will help you understand how that works and what you can do starting now.

Forgiveness Quotes: Learn to let go or resentment and move on with your life. Letting go means returning to your good heart, and the need for love that your anger came from in the first place.

Letting Go Quotes: Learn even more about letting go, and when, where, how and why to do it. Letting go is one of the major keys to happiness and healty love relationships.

Relationship Quotes: The most important relationship you will ever have is the one you have with yourself. When you learn to heal emotionally and be the good person you truly are, you will be more effective and happy in all of your relationships.

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