I’ve come to realize more and more just how devastating anger is. There is no difference between irritation, frustration, anger, hatred or evil. It is the very same nature, spirit, force or mental state.

We can see this for ourselves if we become aware at the very moment when we have been drawn into an unconscious state of being (when we are unaware), and in that state blindly believe into a thought that results in the emotional reaction that we have named “anger”.

When we become aware, meaning that we’re not daydreaming or caught in a thought, we can see that the wordly divisions share the same root evil. Meaning, that irritation, frustration, anger and hate share the very same core force.

I am not alone in seeing the evil in anger and the corrupting force it has on our very life. Common sense philosophers, psychologists and religious leaders have mentioned this for eons. Let me share a few examples from the Bible (Christianity), the Dhammapada (Buddhism), the Bhagavad Gita (Sanatana Dharma/Hinduism) and from the Greek philosophers (ancient philosophy/stoicism).

The following are excerpts from the Bible:

“The anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”
– Apostle James (James 1:20)

“Let go of all bitterness, wrath and anger […] along with all other evil.”
– Apostle Paul (Ephesians 4:31-32)

“Refrain from anger and turn from wrath. Do not fret. It leads only to evil.”
– King David (Book of Psalms 37:8)

“Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger resides in the heart of fools.”
– King Solomon (Ecclesiastes 7:9)

“You must rid yourselves of […] anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.”
– Apostle Paul (Colossians 3:8)

“Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness.”
– Apostle John (1 John 2:9)

The following are excerpts from the Dhammapada:

“Give up anger, give up pride, and free yourself from worldly bondage. No sorrow can befall those who never try to possess people and things as their own.”
– Buddha (Dhammapada 17:221)

“Be truthful. Do not yield to anger.”
– Buddha (Dhammapada 17:224)

“Hatred ruins the mind as weeds ruin fields. Therefore honor those who are free from hatred.”
– Buddha (Dhammapada 24:358)

“That one I call a wise man from whom passion and hatred, arrogance and deceit, have fallen away like mustard seed from the point of a needle.”
– Buddha (Dhammapada 26:407)

The following are excerpts from the Bhagavad Gita:

“One who is not disturbed in spite of […] miseries, who is not elated when there is happiness, and who is free from attachment, fear and anger, is called a sage of steady mind.”
– Krishna (Bhagavad Gita 2:56)

“While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises. From anger, delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost, one falls down again into the material pool.”
– Krishna (Bhagavad Gita 2:62-63)

“Wrath [is] the all-devouring, sinful enemy of this world.”
– Krishna (Bhagavad Gita 3:37)

“There are three gates leading to […] hell: lust, anger and greed. Every sane man should give these up, for they lead to the degradation of the soul. The man who has escaped these three gates of hell […] performs acts conducive to self-realization and thus gradually attains the supreme destination.”
– Krishna (Bhagavad Gita 16:21-22)

Here are a couple of quotes from Plato on the matter as well:

“Anger does not accord with a good man.”
– Plato

“Anger is not natural to man.”
– Plato

And finally, here are several excerpts from Seneca the Younger whom wrote a whole book about the corrosiveness of anger:

“Know that they whom anger possesses are not sane.”
– Seneca the Younger (On Anger)

“Anger is a passion that is above all others hideous and wild.”
– Seneca the Younger (On Anger)

“‘What then’, asks our adversary, ‘is a good man not to be angry if he sees his father murdered or his mother outraged?’ No, he will not be angry, but will avenge them, or protect them. Why do you fear that filial piety will not prove a sufficient spur to him even without anger? The good man will do his duty without disturbance or fear, and he will perform the duty of a good man, so as to do nothing unworthy of a man. My father will be murdered: then I will defend him. He has been slain: then I will avenge him, not because I am grieved, but because it is my duty.”
– Seneca the Younger (On Anger)

“It is not filial piety, but weakness of mind that produces anger. To feel anger on behalf of one's friends does not show a loving, but a weak mind.”
– Seneca the Younger (On Anger)

“‘It is impossible for a good man not to be angry with bad men.’ By this reasoning, the better a man is, the more angry he will be. Yet, will a good man not rather be tranquil, more free from passions and hating no one? Indeed, what reason has he for hating sinners, since it is error that leads them into such crimes? A sensible man does not hate those who err, since if so he will hate himself. Let him think about how many things he himself does contrary to good morals, how much he has done that is in need of pardon, and he will soon become angry with himself also, for no righteous judge pronounces a different judgement in his own case and in that of others. No one, I affirm, will be found who can acquit himself. When a man is wandering about our fields because he has lost his way, it is better to place him on the right path than to drive him away. The sinner ought to be corrected both by warning and by force, but not by anger: for who is angry with the patient whose wounds he is tending? ‘But they cannot be corrected, and there is nothing in them that is gentle or that admits of good hope.’ Then let them be removed from mortal society, if they are likely to deprave everyone with whom they come in contact, and let them cease to be bad men in the only way in which they can: but yet let this be done wihout hatred.”

“A good judge condemns wrongful acts, but does not hate them.”
– Seneca the Younger (On Anger)

“Anger brings about nothing grand or beautiful.”
– Seneca the Younger (On Anger)

“Anger is a vice, which for the most part affects women and children. ‘But it affects men also.’ Because many men, too, have womanish or childish intellects.”
– Seneca the Younger (On Anger)

“You should not believe the words of angry men.”
– Seneca the Younger (On Anger)

“There is nothing great or noble in anger.”
– Seneca the Younger (On Anger)

“Anger can be put to flight by wise maxims, for it is a voluntary defect of the mind.”
– Seneca the Younger (On Anger)

“‘It is not possible’, says the adversary, ‘to remove anger altogether from the mind, nor does human nature admit of it.’ There is nothing that is so hard and difficult that the mind of man cannot overcome it. Nor are there any passions so fierce and independent that they cannot be tamed by discipline.”
– Seneca the Younger (On Anger)

“How great a blessing it is to escape from anger, that chief of all evils.”
– Seneca the Younger (On Anger)

“There is no reason why you should declare anger ineradicable. The evils from which we suffer are curable.”
– Seneca the Younger (On Anger)

“Anger ought to be removed from our minds. Let it be got rid of altogether. There is nothing to be gained by it. Without it we can more easily and more justly put an end to crime, punish bad men, and amend their lives. The wise man will do his duty in all things without the help of any evil passion.”
– Seneca the Younger (On Anger)

“Nothing makes children more prone to anger than a soft and fond upbringing, so that the more the children are indulged, and the more liberty is given to orphans, the more they are corrupted. He to whom nothing is ever denied, will not be able to endure a rebuff, whose anxious mother always wipes away his tears, whose paedagogus is made to pay for his shortcomings.”
– Seneca the Younger (On Anger)

“Anger affects our sanity. There is no passion that is more frantic, more destructive to its own self.”
– Seneca the Younger (On Anger)

“He who is the slave of his own anger is not powerful, nor even free.”
– Seneca the Younger (On Anger)

“There is no greater proof of magnanimity than that nothing which befalls you be able to move you to anger.”
– Seneca the Younger (On Anger)

“Let us set anger far from us. It is destructive to those who are its slaves. All its rage turns to its own misery, and authority becomes all the more irksome the more obstinately it is resisted. It is like a wild animal whose struggles only pull the noose by which it is caught tighter.”
– Seneca the Younger (On Anger)

“There is nothing useful in that hideous and destructive passion of anger, but on the contrary, every kind of evil, fire and sword. Let us be free from this evil, let us clear our minds of it, and extirpate root and branch a passion which grows again wherever the smallest particle of it finds a resting-place. Let us not moderate anger, but get rid of it altogether. What can moderation have to do with an evil habit?”
– Seneca the Younger (On Anger)

Much more important than symbols in books and quotes from the past, is having an inner understanding about how destructive anger is for oneself. Not because someone else said so, but because one can truly see that it is so. But I can use these verses to interest those people who are steeped in the weltanschauung of a certain philosophy, religion or school of thought to pay extra attention.

If Plato, Seneca the Younger, Buddha, Jesus and Krishna all condemn anger as a negative force that enslaves us, rather than liberates us, then people might consider it worth looking into, for those who have not pondered the subject previously.