Justice sticks to her plan once she's made it. But anger often gets overcome by pity. Anger has no real strength — it just puffs up like an empty balloon and starts with wild fury. It's like winds that rise from rivers and swamps: they blow hard at first but don't last. Anger begins with a mighty rush, then collapses and gets tired too quickly. What was just thinking about cruelty and new forms of torture becomes soft and gentle when it's time to actually punish someone. Passion cools down fast, but reason stays consistent. Even when anger keeps burning, it often happens that after killing two or three people, it stops — even though many more deserved to die.
She, therefore, abides by her purpose when it has once been formed; whereas anger is often overcome by pity: for it possesses no firm strength, but merely swells like an empty bladder, and makes a violent beginning, just like the winds which rise from the earth and are caused by rivers and marshes, which blow furiously without any continuance: anger begins with a mighty rush, and then falls away, becoming fatigued too soon: that which but lately thought of nothing but cruelty and novel forms of torture, is become quite softened and gentle when the time comes for punishment to be inflicted. Passion soon cools, whereas reason is always consistent: yet even in cases where anger has continued to burn, it often happens that although there may be many who deserve to die, yet after the death of two or three it ceases to slay.