You can close a door without setting the whole house on fire.

Ending something and burning it down are different acts, and people confuse them because anger makes the exit easier. You can stop a friendship, leave a job or close a chapter while leaving the door intact, and that restraint costs you nothing except the brief satisfaction of the final word.

If you are on your way out of something, decide now what you will not say. Leave the reference, the shared history and the possibility of a civil conversation in five years. You rarely regret the dignified version.