Domitian shrugged. "It's certainly not as strategic." He closed the book and set it on a nearby table. The conversation seemed to have progressed far enough that he doubted further quotes from Greek philosophers would be necessary or useful to keep it going. "There are two extremes in the spectrum of human behavior, and most people operate at some point between them. There are people who are ruled by emotion; they act on feelings as soon as they experience them. And there are people who rule their emotions, who use them like tools to achieve an end. If resentment is a weapon —" Here Domitian lowered his voice just slightly, to make it more difficult for someone else to overhear if any servants were in the nearby hallway. "— then in order to use it to its greatest effect, one must know in advance exactly when and how one intends to wound with it."
