There are four different types of people when it comes to character traits. The first type is an individual who gets angry very quickly, without much having to happen. He gets angry, but he also calms down very easily. Any gain this type of person has from the positive trait of calming down quickly is more than wiped out by the negative trait of getting angry very quickly. For a person like this, the damage is already done. Once you get angry, even though you could be appeased with that much effort, you’ve caused so much chaos and so much damage. You’ve done so many Averot. The Gemara says that anger is very much connected to Averot, the sin. Some of our Rabbis teach in the Gemara that when a person gets angry, it’s like you worshipped Avodah Zarah (idolatry). So, any positive trait this type of person has is wiped away by the major problem of getting angry very quickly, even though he cools down right away. It doesn’t matter; the damage is done by that point.
The second type of person gets angry only with difficulty. He is very slow to anger, but once he does get angry, he is also very slow to calm down. For that type of person, the loss is outweighed by the gain. What we’re saying about this person is that even though he has a hard time calming down after he gets angry, he doesn’t get angry often. Therefore, we say that the little bit of loss that he has doesn’t really affect things in a major way by the fact that he doesn’t get appeased easily because he doesn’t really get angry too often.
The third type of person is slow to anger and calms down very easily. That person is a chasid, a pious individual. We have to point out here that the Mishnah is saying that this individual never gets angry, because sometimes anger is appropriate. If a person needs to act, if he needs to show that something is not okay, getting angry is okay. So this type of person gets angry, but only when it’s really appropriate. When it comes to being appeased, he calms down very quickly, and therefore he’s a chasid.
The last type of person gets angry very quickly, and it’s very difficult to calm him down. He is very slow to calm down. This type of person is a rasha, a wicked individual.