Different people should make us pause before getting angry with them. Some we should fear to anger. Others should make us feel ashamed of our anger. Still others aren't worth our anger at all. What a great accomplishment — sending some poor slave to prison! Why rush to beat him right now? Why break his legs immediately? Our power won't disappear if we wait to use it. Let's wait until we can think clearly and give real orders. Right now, anger is doing the talking for us.
Let different qualities in different people keep us from quarrelling with them: let us fear to be angry with some, feel ashamed of being angry with others, and disdain to be angry with others. We do a fine thing, indeed, when we send a wretched slave to the workhouse! Why are we in such a hurry to flog him at once, to break his legs straightway? we shall not lose our boasted power if we defer its exercise. Let us wait for the time when we ourselves can give orders: at present we speak under constraint from anger.