A soft answer turns away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.
All Commentaries on Proverbs 15:1 Go To Proverbs 15
John Chrysostom
AD 407
“Anger even ruins the prudent: a soft answer turns away anger, but a painful word arouses rage.” All things depend on our decision, certainly also to raise anger or to soothe. It is not the Lord who gets angry, but it is in our power to cause his anger or the opposite. And if anger even ruins the prudent, how much more will it ruin those about whom it was said [that] anger destroys the imprudent? And this certainly happens also to the prudent because of some negligence. But “a soft answer turns away anger,” that is, a way of answering in open humility and without any harshness. Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon, Fragment
