Starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam;
    so drop the matter before a dispute breaks out.

If a dam is breached, can you control the flood or stop the flowing water at will? Usually not, for the water will breach and collapse the dam, and the flood will have unimagined and out of control destructive consequences. A quarrel can be the same way, for once we start, so much is immediately out of our control, no matter how smart we might think we are. Unintended consequences start breaking out; sometimes in places we wouldn’t have suspected… a minor little quarrel becomes a complete disaster. A wise person knows this and avoids starting it; an overconfident person thinks he can control events and goes ahead anyway: A fool starts a quarrel without even thinking