James A. Forbes Quotes

I don't feel bitterness, I don't feel anger towards anybody. Fighting is never emotional to me.

Every day we have plenty of opportunities to get angry, stressed or offended. But what you're doing when you indulge these negative emotions is giving something outside yourself power over your happiness. You can choose to not let little things upset you.

Where I once constantly lost my temper, I found myself arriving at a crisis and experiencing peace.

I'm too mature to be angry.

When we can lay down our fear and anger and choose responses other than aggression, we create the conditions for bringing out the best in us humans.

There needs to be understanding that anger never helps to solve a problem. It destroys our peace of mind and blinds our ability to think clearly. Anger and attachment are emotions that distort our view of reality.

Whether we consider the individual, family, local, national or international level, peace must arise from inner peace. For example, making prayers for peace while continuing to harbor anger is futile. Training the mind and overcoming your anger is much more effective than mere prayer. Anger, hatred and jealousy never solve problems, only affection, concern and respect can do that.

It's rare to find a consistently creative or insightful person who is also an angry person. They can't occupy the same space, and if your anger moves in, generosity and creativity often move out. It's difficult to use revenge or animus to fuel great work.

[..] and there are tons of people I hate so much that I wouldn't mind taking them out. But killing them wouldn't get me anywhere - that's the conclusion I always come to. If I'm going to pay for it in the end, I might as well let them live.

Peace isn't the mere absence of violence; peace must come from inner peace. And inner peace comes from taking others’ interests into account.

A heart filled with anger has no room for love.

Nothing is more powerful than meekness. For as fire is extinguished by water, so a mind inflated by anger is subdued by meekness. By meekness we practice and make known our virtue, and also cause the indignation of our brother to cease, and deliver his mind from perturbation.

When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others. Inner peace is not found by staying on the surface of life, or by attempting to escape from life through any means. Inner peace is found by facing life squarely, solving its problems, and delving as far beneath its surface as possible to discover its verities and realities.

We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.

When anger rises, think of the consequences.

I've become a lot more tolerant; I think before I talk. I can take a lot now. I don't get as angry as I used to. Whenever I do, I channel my anger into my work.

Be at peace with your own soul, then heaven and earth will be at peace with you.

I was once a fairly angry person.

For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.

We are becoming able to see the pursuit of external power for what it is and the futility of trying to escape the pain of powerlessness by changing the world. When we look inward, not outward, we can dismantle the parts of our personalities that have controlled us for so long - such as anger, jealousy, vindictiveness, superiority, inferiority.

If revenge motivates you, go for it! But the main thing is to set your game in order.

I wouldn't be honest if I told you that in some moment of my life I had a lot of rage - probably hate - I'm not sure of hate, but rage. But you know what happens is that then you realize you cannot do to others what you think nobody has to do to anybody. Life is important for me and not any kind of life, quality too of life.

Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.

You have to be able to center yourself, to let all of your emotions go... Don't ever forget that you play with your soul as well as your body.

Through the years I have seen myself as a peaceful person, but the awareness of the anger is part of that process.