Mark Twain? Ann Landers? Turkish Proverb? Mohandas Gandhi? Seneca the Younger? Frederica Mathewes-Green? Anonymous?
Question for Quote Investigator: Intense feelings of anger affect the body and mind negatively. This notion can be expressed metaphorically:
Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.
Mark Twain, Ann Landers, and Mohandas Gandhi have received credit for this saying, but I am skeptical because I have not seen any solid citations. Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: QI has found no substantive evidence that Mark Twain employed this saying. It does not appear on the Twain Quotes website edited by Barbara Schmidt,[1] nor does it appear in the large compilation “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips” edited by Caroline Thomas Harnsberger.[2]
The earliest close match located by QI appeared in May 1955 within the “Daily News-Post” of Monrovia, California. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:[3]
Corrosive
Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it’s stored than to anything on which it’s poured.
The saying above also appeared on the same day in other newspapers such as the “San Pedro News-Pilot”[4] of San Pedro, California and the “Evening Vanguard”[5] of Venice, California. The creator was anonymous.
The central metaphor of this expression has a long history in the Turkish language. A compact instance appeared in “A Dictionary of Turkish Proverbs” compiled by Metin Yurtbaşı:[6]
Keskin sirke küpüne/kabına zarar.
Sour vinegar harms its jar.
[A bad temper harms its possessor most!]
The dictionary provided a nineteenth century citation and a twentieth century citation for this proverb in Turkish:
ÖAA 1402 < Ş 3037
Ş. = Şinasi, Durüb-ı Emsâl-i Osmaniyye (Ottoman Proverbs), Istanbul, 1863.
ÖAA = Ömer Asim Aksoy, Atasözleri Sözlüyü (Dictionary of Proverbs), Ankara, 1965.
Additional details and citations are available in the article on the Medium platform which is located here.
Image Notes: Picture of a campfire cauldron from Ray_Shrewsberry at Pixabay. The image has been cropped.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Ben Hadad whose message led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Hadad was reminded of this saying by the related saying about resentment. He noted the attribution to Mark Twain and the existence of a Turkish proverb “Sharp vinegar harms its own container”.
[1] Website: TwainQuotes.com, Editor: Barbara Schmidt, (QI searched the website for quotations containing the phrase “anger is an acid” or the phrase “vessel in which”. No pertinent match was discovered), Description: Mark Twain quotations, articles, and related resources. (Searched January 28, 2023) link
[2] 1948, Mark Twain at Your Fingertips by Caroline Thomas Harnsberger, (QI searched for quotations containing the phrase “anger is an acid” or the phrase “vessel in which”. No pertinent match was discovered), Cloud, Inc., Beechhurst Press, Inc., New York. (Verified with search)
[3] 1955 May 16, Daily News-Post, Corrosive (Filler item), Quote Page 4, Column 1, Monrovia, California. (Newspapers_com)
[4] 1955 May 16, San Pedro News-Pilot, Corrosive (Filler item), Quote Page 4, Column 1, San Pedro, California. (Newspapers_com)
[5] 1955 May 16, Evening Vanguard, Corrosive (Filler item), Quote Page 4, Column 1, Venice, California. (Newspapers_com)
[6] 2012 (1993 First Printing), A Dictionary of Turkish Proverbs, Compiled by Metin Yurtbaşı, Topic: Anger, Quote Page 17, Published by Mehmet Başpehlivan, Excellence Publishing. (Verified with scans)