Self-control.

Meaning: The saying praises allowing anger to pass rather than keeping a grievance alive. Its moral judgement is too simple: lasting anger does not by itself show that someone lacks good character.

Meaning: If someone has become angry without good reason, they cannot fairly demand compensation merely to restore their mood. The saying separates calming down from receiving amends, while leaving genuine grievances open to examination.

Meaning: Listen more and speak with greater restraint. Giving other people room to explain can improve your understanding before you decide what contribution is useful.

Meaning: Keep your speech under considered control rather than letting impulse set its tone. Firm words can remain measured, accurate and proportionate without becoming an unnecessary attack.

Editorial context: Restraint in speech does not mean keeping harm secret. Seeking help, reporting problems and expressing disagreement can be necessary.

Meaning: Hold back words that would be better left unsaid. The image of keeping the tongue behind the teeth encourages restraint in speaking, rather than requiring silence about a genuine concern or something that needs to be reported.

Meaning: Practical understanding includes navigating daily life and choosing what to say or keep private. The saying values discretion without claiming that silence is always the wisest response.

Meaning: A person who is secure in a skill may have less need to prove it through conflict. The source’s absolute wording offers an ideal of restraint, not a guarantee about the behaviour of skilled people.

Meaning: Composure can help you face an unfavourable situation. Presenting a steady manner is useful when it supports action, but it should not require denying what has gone wrong.

Meaning: The comparison warns about unchecked appetite by portraying it as more destructive than open violence. It is rhetorical emphasis, not a reliable comparison of deaths or a dietary rule.

Meaning: A closed door denies entry to the figure of temptation. The saying makes a firm boundary part of refusal, without proving that unwanted pressure always disappears once someone says no.

Meaning: Answering foolish noise with the same noise can make the responder part of it. The braying image questions imitation as a useful way to address an unproductive exchange.

Meaning: Gentleness should not be tested by deliberately provoking harm. The bloodhound and lip image makes trust compatible with respecting another’s limits, rather than treating tolerance as permission.