It is easy to fly into a passion—anybody can do that. But to be angry with the right person to the right extent and at the right time and with the right object and in the right way—that is not easy, and it is not everyone who can do it.

About Aristotle

Aristotle (Ancient Greek: Ἀριστοτέλης, romanized: Aristotélēs; 384–322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings span the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, and the arts. As the founder of the Peripatetic school of philosophy in the Lyceum in Athens, he began the wider Aristotelian tradition that...

More quotations from Aristotle

It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen.

—Aristotle

The moral virtues, then, are produced in us neither by nature nor against nature. Nature, indeed, prepares in us the ground for their reception, but their complete formation is the product of habit.

—Aristotle

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.

—Aristotle

Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.

—Aristotle

For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.

—Aristotle

More quotations tagged with “anger”

Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned.

—Milton Friedman

hell anger scorn fury

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.

—Edward Abbey

hatred anger mountains

You don't stop loving someone just because they've hurt you. Yes, what you did hurt me, but I gain nothing if I stay angry with you. But I might gain everything by forgiving you.

—Cassia Leo in Pieces of You

love relationships forgiveness pain hurt anger

Nonviolence is not some exalted regimen that can be practiced only by a monk or a master; it also pertains to the way one interacts with a child, vacuums a carpet, or waits in line.… Whenever we separate ourselves from a given situation (for example, through inattentiveness, negative judgments, or impatience), we "kill" something valuable:… people, things, one's own composure, the moment itself.… These small-scale incidences of violence accumulate relentlessly, are multiplied on a social level, and become a source of the large-scale violence that can sweep down upon us so suddenly.… One need not wait until war is declared and bullets are flying to work for peace.… A more constant and equally urgent battle must be waged each day against the forces of one's own anger, carelessness, and self-absorption.

—Kenneth Kraft

patience nonviolence moment anger practice

I always had a decent sense of outrage.

—Bella Abzug

anger outrage

History

17 Jan 2015 Added
26 Oct 2026 Wording changed

Previous wording

It is easy to fly into a passion — anybody can do that. But to be angry with the right person to the right extent and at the right time and with the right object and in the right way — that is not easy, and it is not everyone who can do it.