Who really said it

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

Q: Did Gautama Buddha say "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"?

No. The hot-coal image is genuinely Buddhist, but it comes from the scholar-monk Buddhaghosa, not the Buddha himself. It appears in his 5th-century commentary the Visuddhimagga ("The Path of Purification") — not in the Buddha's own recorded discourses — and the familiar English wording is a modern paraphrase that spread from a 1987 self-help book, as documented by Quote Investigator.

Not Gautama Buddha — a paraphrase of Buddhaghosa Buddhaghosa fl. 5th century CE · Theravada Buddhist commentator

Disputed Rights unconfirmed

The hot-coal image is genuinely Buddhist, but it comes from the scholar-monk Buddhaghosa, not the Buddha himself. It appears in his 5th-century commentary the Visuddhimagga (“The Path of Purification”) — not in the Buddha’s own recorded discourses — and the familiar English wording is a modern paraphrase that spread from a 1987 self-help book, as documented by Quote Investigator.

Last verified 14 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“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” Buddhaghosa, Visuddhimagga (5th century CE) — the metaphor's true source; not the Buddha, and the popular wording is a modern paraphrase

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Gautama Buddha. Use the credit shown above instead.

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We couldn’t verify where this wording comes from, so there’s no rights status to give. Safe to present as an unverified or anonymous line — just don’t assert a specific author or source.

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In context

Evoking the world of Buddhaghosa — Theravada Buddhist scholar-monk · author of the Visuddhimagga. Theme: "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". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

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Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "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". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

Where it actually comes from

Work: Visuddhimagga (The Path of Purification)
Author: Buddhaghosa, 5th century CE
Translation: Pe Maung Tin, The Path of Purity (1931)
Location: Part II, ch. IX (The Developing of Love)

… like a man who seizes with both hands glowing live coals or dung in order to strike another man therewith, but who first burns and befouls himself. Buddhaghosa, 5th c. CE (paraphrased)

From Pe Maung Tin’s 1931 translation of the Visuddhimagga. The original couples the coal with dung/excrement and describes a person acting on anger — not “holding on to” it. The popular quote drops the dung, adds the “holding on” framing, and reads as first-person advice.

Quote Investigator: the full investigation

How we verified this

5th century CE — the metaphor is written by Buddhaghosa in the Visuddhimagga, an interpretive commentary, as traced by Quote Investigator.
1931 — Pe Maung Tin’s English translation renders it “glowing live coals or dung … who first burns and befouls himself,” per QI’s citation.
1987–88 — Joan Borysenko’s Minding the Body, Mending the Mind puts the simile in the Buddha’s mouth, seeding the modern wording (QI).
Verdict — Fake Buddha Quotes confirms it is not canonical and never appears in the Buddha’s recorded words.

The underlying metaphor is Buddhaghosa’s 5th-century Visuddhimagga, whose Pali original is long in the public domain. But the exact popular English wording is a modern paraphrase with no single identifiable author — it diverges from every documented translation, including Pe Maung Tin’s 1931 rendering — so no clear copyright status can be asserted for this specific phrasing.

Fact-check

A genuine Buddhist image, wrongly signed

This is one of the internet's most reshared “Buddha” lines — and it is not his. The thought is authentically Buddhist, but the words are a modern paraphrase of a later commentator.

Gautama Buddha Misattributed

The Buddha never said this. The metaphor was written roughly a thousand years after his death by the commentator Buddhaghosa in the Visuddhimagga, per Quote Investigator.

Modern paraphrase Reworded

The original describes a person acting on anger by seizing “glowing live coals or dung” and burning himself first. The popular version drops the dung, reframes it as “holding on to” anger, and adds the throwing image — a paraphrase, not a translation (Fake Buddha Quotes).

Joan Borysenko (1987) Popularizer

Her book Minding the Body, Mending the Mind placed the simile directly in the Buddha’s mouth, and the modern wording spread from there (QI).

The real author is Buddhaghosa, a 5th-century commentator — and even his words describe acting on anger, not the tidy “hot coal you throw” aphorism people now quote (Quote Investigator).

Context

Why it matters

The line is genuinely rooted in Buddhist thought, which is why it feels so plausible as a Buddha quote — and that plausibility is exactly what let the misattribution spread. The image of harming yourself by clutching a burning coal really does appear in the Theravada tradition; it just belongs to a 5th-century commentary, not to the historical Buddha’s discourses.

The gap between Buddhaghosa’s original and the viral version is instructive: the source warns against acting on anger (striking someone), while the popular saying is about holding on to it. The paraphrase is arguably wiser than the original — but it is not what anyone in the canon actually said.

Authentically Buddhist in spirit — but written by a commentator, not the Buddha, and reworded by the modern self-help shelf.

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More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

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Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quote Origin: Anger Is Like Grasping a Hot Coalquoteinvestigator.com

The definitive investigation tracing the metaphor to Buddhaghosa and the wording to a 1987 book.

Fake Buddha Quotes: grasping a hot coalfakebuddhaquotes.com

Bodhipaksa's analysis identifying the real Visuddhimagga source and its actual wording.

Visuddhimagga (The Path of Purification)en.wikipedia.org

Background on Buddhaghosa's 5th-century treatise where the coal metaphor appears.

Buddhaghosaen.wikipedia.org

Biography of the actual author of the metaphor.

Gautama Buddha (Wikiquote)en.wikiquote.org

Wikiquote's catalog of quotes wrongly pinned on the Buddha.

The author

About Buddhaghosa

Buddhaghosa

fl. 5th century CE · Theravada Buddhist scholar-monk · author of the Visuddhimagga

Buddhaghosa was a 5th-century Indian Theravada commentator who worked at the Mahavihara in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka. His masterwork, the Visuddhimagga (“The Path of Purification”), systematizes Theravada doctrine and meditation, and it is there — not in the Buddha’s own sermons — that the vivid image of seizing a live coal to strike another appears. His writings shaped Theravada thought for centuries, but they are interpretive commentary written roughly a millennium after the Buddha’s death.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

The primary source (Chicago)

Buddhaghosa, The Path of Purity (Visuddhimagga), trans. Pe Maung Tin (London: Pali Text Society, 1931), Part II, ch. IX; paraphrase popularized in Joan Borysenko, Minding the Body, Mending the Mind (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1987).

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘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’?” Last verified 14 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/holding-on-to-anger-is-like-grasping-a-hot-coal-with-the