One betrayal is not an error—it is a revelation. A man’s treachery is not born in the moment; it lives in him, coiled and waiting, long before his knife touches your back.
Those who forgive the first wound often think themselves noble, yet they are merely extending the battlefield. Every pardon teaches the betrayer that his blade was not sharp enough, not that it should never be drawn.
You do not need to drink the whole sea to know its taste, nor must you suffer the thousand cuts to believe the first was fatal. The wise close the gates at the first breach. The foolish leave them open and call it mercy.
—The Weaver of Woe
A snake that bites once will bite again—it is the nature, not the moment, that matters.
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