On Anger

Do not insist on having your own way, for this gives birth to anger.

If you feel anger coming upon you, fall silent and say nothing until your heart has grown calm through unceasing prayer and self-reproach.

By possession is meant the physical settling of demons in a man, as it was in the case of the man of Gadara. Such possession is a misfortune that does not depend on a man’s will, and for this reason it is not subject to judgement… But there is a possession of a purely moral kind — irritability that goes as far as frenzy… There are people who by nature are extremely excitable… every misfortune weighs heavily on them, and they do not hold back from insulting those close to them by word and deed… Can it be said that their insults cannot be held against them? No, because such people give free rein to themselves over those who depend on them, sure that they will go unpunished… In other cases they force themselves and stifle within themselves their natural inclination to anger… From this it is plain that they cannot be justified not only before God’s judgement but even before a human court.