Anger is the most impotent of passions. It effects nothing it goes about, and hurts the one who is possessed by it more than the one against whom it is directed.

The saying treats anger not as a useful spur to action but as a self-defeating state: it is “impotent” because it rarely produces the intended change in the world, and it rebounds on the person who indulges it. The emphasis is practical rather than moralistic—anger is portrayed as ineffective (“effects nothing”) and internally corrosive, harming the bearer more than the target. Read this way, the quote aligns with a long tradition of ethical counsel (Stoic and otherwise) that distinguishes between clear-eyed resolve and the turbulence of rage. Its significance lies in reframing anger as a liability that diminishes agency and judgment.