Anger begins with folly, and ends with repentance.

The saying frames anger as a self-defeating emotional arc: it starts in “folly” (a lapse of judgment, pride, or impulsiveness) and culminates in “repentance” (regret over what anger makes one say or do). Its moral logic is cautionary—anger is portrayed less as righteous energy than as a predictable pathway to mistakes and remorse. The aphorism also implies a practical ethic of self-governance: if the endpoint is typically regret, the wise response is to interrupt anger early, before it hardens into words or actions that require apology. In that sense, it functions as advice about emotional discipline and the costs of reactive behavior.