You can’t unsay something. You can only outlive it with better things.

Words do not come back. A sentence said in temper leaves your mouth and becomes part of somebody’s record of you, and no amount of explaining afterward removes the fact that it existed. What you can do is add so much other evidence over time that the one line stops being the summary.

If you said something you cannot take back, apologize once and clearly, with no paragraph of reasons. Then let your behavior make the argument for a while, since that is slower and far more convincing than another conversation. And stay careful in the moments you can still feel yourself choosing.