Audre Lorde on anger

I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.

Anger is an appropriate reaction to racist attitudes, as is fury when the actions arising from those attitudes do not change.

There are no new ideas, just new ways of giving those ideas we cherish breath and power in our own living.

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.

Aristotle384–322 BC

I was angry with my friend I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow.

William Blake1757–1827A Poison Tree (1794), Songs of Experience (1794), A Poison Tree, st. 1In context

• Friendship

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.

Gautama Buddha501–501 BC