"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 Buddha
Holding On To Anger Is Like
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.
About this quote
The "hot coal" metaphor is not from the Buddha but from the 5th-century Buddhist commentator Buddhaghosa, in his treatise the Visuddhimagga (IX, 23): "By doing this you are like a man who wants to hit another and picks up a burning ember... but who first burns himself." The popular wording in wide circulation was crafted by Joan Borysenko in her 1987 book Minding the Body, Mending the Mind, where she put the simile into the Buddha's mouth. The Pali Canon does contain a fire/anger simile, but it concerns the dangers of sensuality, not anger.
Source
Attributed, widely reported in Buddhist collections (may derive from Buddhaghosa's Visuddhimagga)
