Anger as soon as fed is dead —
‘Tis starving makes it fat.
Quotations about:
catharsis
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Anger repressed can poison a relationship as surely as the cruelest words.
Joyce Brothers (1927-2013) American psychologist, television personality, advice columnist
“When Your Husband’s Affection Cools,” Good Housekeeping (May 1972)
A man who cannot get angry is like a stream that cannot overflow, that is always turbid. Sometimes indignation is as good as a thunder-storm in summer, clearing and cooling the air.
Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) American clergyman and orator
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit, “Man” (1887)
(Source)
Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns all clean.
Maya Angelou (1928-2014) American poet, memoirist, activist [b. Marguerite Ann Johnson]
In Mary Chamberlain, ed., Writing Lives: Conversations Between Women Writers (1988)
(Source)
He that lacks time to mourn, lacks time to mend.
Eternity mourns that. ‘Tis an ill cure
For life’s worst ills, to have no time to feel them.
Where sorrow’s held intrusive and turned out,
There wisdom will not enter, nor true power,
Nor aught that dignifies humanity.Henry Taylor (1800-1886) English dramatist, poet, bureaucrat, man of letters
Philip Van Artevelde, Part 1, Act 1, sc. 5 (1834)
(Source)
As I walked out the door toward my freedom, I knew that if I did not leave all the anger, hatred, and bitterness behind, that I would still be in prison.
Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) South African revolutionary, politician, statesman
(Attributed)
On his release from 27 years behind bars. Quoted by Hillary Clinton from a conversation she had with him.
Suffering cleanses only when it is free of resentment. Wholehearted contempt for our tormentors safeguards our soul from the mutilations of bitterness and hatred.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 263 (1955)
(Source)
Do not imagine you can exorcise what oppresses you in life by giving vent to it in art.
Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880) French writer, novelist
Letter to Louise Colet (25 Nov 1853)
In trying circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity affords a relief denied even to prayer.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
In Albert Bigelow Paine, Mark Twain: A Biography, ch. 38 (1912)
(Source)
MALCOLM: Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak
Whispers the o’er-fraught heart and bids it break.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Macbeth, Act 4, sc. 3, l. 246ff (4.3.246-247) (1606)
(Source)
Anger is a corpse in the closet: the longer locked up, the greater the stink when brought out.
Graham Ericsson (b. 1961) American technologist, writer, aphorist
Journal (undated)
