Say less in a fight and you’ll have less to apologize for later.

Anger makes you eloquent in the worst way. The extra sentences in a fight are almost never the useful ones; they are the cruel aside, the old grievance, the thing you knew would land. Afterwards the apology is for those, not for the disagreement you started with. Fewer words means less damage and a shorter route back to normal.

Set yourself a limit in the next argument, perhaps three sentences before you let them answer. When the clever hurtful line arrives, hold it. Nobody has ever regretted a sentence they did not say in a fight.