Richard L. Evans
The Spoken Word
2 May 1965

ACTING IN ANGER

We have talked at previous times of what comes out of the mind and heart of man— the language he uses— humor, profanity: That what he laughs at or lets come from his lips may be the measure of his mind, his soul, what he is inside.

There is yet another outcropping of character, and that is inordinate or uncontrolled anger. “Men must not turn [into] bees (that put their lives in the sting) . . . ,” said Sir Francis Bacon. “To contain anger from mischief . . . there be two things whereof you must have special caution. The one, of extreme bitterness of words, especially if they be stinging and personal. . . . The other, that you do not peremptorily break off, in any business, in a fit of anger; but howsoever you show bitterness, do not act anything that is not revocable.”

In other words, don’t issue an ill-timed ultimatum or slam the door forever in anger. “. . . For he who is excited by anger seems to turn away from reason. . . .” said Marcus Aurelius. “The soul does violence to itself when t turns away from any man, or moves towards him with the intention of injuring . . . when it does anything . . .without considering the end. . . .”

“Some think that it makes them feel better when they . . . give vent to their madness in abusive and unbecoming language,” said Brigham Young. “This, however, is a mistake. . . . When the wrath and bitterness of the human heart are moulded into words and hurled with violence at one another. … If this practice is continued, it will lead to alienation between man and wife, parents and children, brethren and sisters, until there is no fellowship to be found. . . .”

Men “should not suffer reverses and unpleasant circumstances to sour their natures and render them fretful and unsocial at home, speaking words full of bitterness and biting acrimony to their wives and children, creating gloom and sorrow in their habitations, making themselves feared rather than beloved by their families” “Act nothing in a furious passion,” said Thomas Fuller. And Shakespeare said it in this sentence: “Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot That it do singe yourself.”

God grant that we may not, like bees, destroy ourselves with our own anger.