Meaning of “The superior man is satisfied and composed; the…”

Retaliation is rejected when it would reproduce the very behavior one condemns.

Emerson attacks rigid consistency when it prevents people from revising judgment in the light of new thought.

Anger is not automatically justified by intensity; the verse separates human wrath from the moral outcome a person may claim to be pursuing.

Calmness is treated as a cultivated capacity arising from self-control and understanding rather than as a temperament a person either possesses or lacks.

Movement is most stable when it has a quiet center; the aphorism makes composure a governing condition rather than the opposite of effective action.

Happiness is defined as durable mental order rather than constant excitement, pleasure, or favorable luck.