4 Maccabees 2:20

20 For if reason could not control anger, he would not have spoken thus.

4 Maccabees 2:20 In-Context

18 For, as I have said, the temperate mind is able to get the better of the emotions, to correct some, and to render others powerless.

19 Why else did Jacob, our most wise father, censure the households of Simeon and Levi for their irrational slaughter of the entire tribe of the Shechemites, saying, "Cursed be their anger"?

20 For if reason could not control anger, he would not have spoken thus.

21 Now when God fashioned man, he planted in him emotions and inclinations,

22 but at the same time he enthroned the mind among the senses as a sacred governor over them all.