Hanlon’s razor states:

never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity

It’s helped me to keep my cool on more than one occasion. I’ve seen several versions of it, with both Wikipedia and Farnam Street providing versions that swap out “stupidity” with words such as “neglect,” “misunderstanding,” and “lethargy.”

I’m sure someone smarter than me has thought of this before, but I found adding one thing to this brilliant phrase helped me even more:

never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity or coincidence

Accidents happen, and at the moment, the acts that cause them can appear to be driven by malice.

Take a moment to recognize the non-zero chance that you may be the victim of a bad dice roll as opposed to a carefully planned act.