Ira initius insaniae.
(Ennius, Fragment 438, adapted and quoted by Cicero, Tusculanae Disputationes
4.23.52)

Anger is the beginning of insanity.

(pron = EE-rah in-IH-tee-oom in-SAH-nee-ai)

Comment: Indeed, Cicero asks: is there anything more like insanity than anger?
He then gives several examples from Greek and Roman mythology and history of
terrible, devastating things that were done by otherwise great or heroic men
while angered. There is even the implication that at times anger might be a
useful insanity (if you need something really horrible done--then of course we
must discuss "need").

There are plenty of occassions where anger is the human emotion that arises and
that is appropriate to the situation. Even while anger arising in me might be
exactly the emotion called forth and appropriate to what is happening, it is a
fire in me that can very quickly overwhelm me and turn me into the next cause
for someone else to become angry.

I guess for me, anger is best viewed as a human fire. It can be a very useful
fire. The civil rights movement was such a fire that produced some really
needed purgation and clarity in our culture. Our own civil war was also a
product of human anger (as well as other things). Domestic violence has its
own fires burning. Abuse of any kind is often an unconscious fire that burns
away at its victims.

Anger is something to watch, learn from, and learn to use well. Otherwise, it
becomes a great conflagration.