Franklin presents three responses to conflict as a moral progression. To injure another person is to act wrongly and place oneself beneath them. To retaliate after being injured restores a kind of equality, but only by repeating the same harmful conduct. Revenge may answer the original wrong, yet it does not rise above it.

Forgiveness, by contrast, is presented as the stronger response because it requires restraint and refuses to continue the cycle of injury. Franklin’s language of being “above” an enemy refers to moral conduct rather than social superiority. The saying does not imply that wrongdoing should be ignored, that justice is unnecessary, or that harmful relationships must continue. Its central point is that refusing personal revenge can demonstrate greater self-command than either causing harm or returning it. Forgiveness becomes a way of ending retaliation without imitating the behaviour that caused the grievance.