“An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.”
- Mahatma Gandhi
“Revenge proves its own executioner.”
- John Ford,The Broken Heart
“I will hurt you for this. I don't know how yet, but give me time. A day will come when you think yourself safe and happy, and suddenly your joy will turn to ashes in your mouth, and you'll know the debt is paid.”
- George R.R. Martin,A Clash of Kings
“The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.”
- Marcus Aurelius,Meditations
“Not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die.”
- Anne Lamott
“When someone is mean to me, I just make them a victim in my next book.”
- Mary Higgins Clark
“Beware the fury of a patient man.”
- John Dryden
“People should either be caressed or crushed. If you do them minor damage they will get their revenge; but if you cripple them there is nothing they can do. If you need to injure someone, do it in such a way that you do not have to fear their vengeance.”
- Niccolò Machiavelli
“Vengeance and retribution require a long time; it is the rule.”
- Charles Dickens,A Tale of Two Cities
“Two wrongs dont make it right but....it makes it even!!-”
- Alex Biggs
“When we take revenge against another, we lose some of our innocence.“
- Patrice Redd Vecchione, Revenge and Forgiveness
“If I were going to set out to oppress other people, I would surely prefer to select for my victims persons whose first response is forgiveness rather than persons whose first response is revenge.“
- Jeffrie G. Murphy,Getting Even
“To take revenge halfheartedly is to court disaster: Either condemn or crown your hatred.“
- Pierre Corneille, Rodogune
“A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green.“
- Francis Bacon, Essays
“In revenge and in love woman is more barbaric than man is.“
- Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
“Murder’s out of tune,And sweet revenge grows harsh.“
- William Shakespeare, Othello
“In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy, but in passing it over he is superior.“
- Francis Bacon, Essays
“Let them that are happy talk of piety; he that would work his adversary woe must take no account of laws.“
- Euripides, Ion
“Universal though the instinct for revenge may be, it is much stronger in some of us than others. And those who have it in abundance apparently pay something of a price.“
- Ellis Cose, Bone to Pick
“Revenge, at first though sweet,Bitter ere long back on itself recoils.“
- John Milton, Paradise Lost
“I'm not real big on repentence...I like revenge better.“
- Laurell K. Hamilton, The Lunatic Cafe
“When you have the power to screw people over and you don't--well, that's when you get to show who you really are.“
- Joseph Finder, Paranoia
“To see an enemy humiliated gives a certain contentment, but this is jejune compared with the highly blent satisfaction of seeing him humiliated by your benevolent action or concession on his behalf. That is the sort of revenge which falls into the scale of virtue.“
- George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss
“Vengeance is just:
Justly we rid the earth of human fiends
Who carry hell for pattern in their souls.
But in high vengeance there is noble scorn:
It tortures not the torturer, nor gives
Iniquitous payment for iniquity.
The great avenging angel does not crawl
To kill the serpent with a mimic fang;
He stands erect, with sword of keenest edge
That slays like lightning.“
- George Eliot, The Spanish Gypsy
“Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.“
- Francis Bacon, Essays
“Revenge is often like biting a dog because the dog bit you.“
- Austin O'malley, Keystones of Thought
“When violence hurries on too fast, and caution does not keep pace with revenge, people generally do themselves more harm than the enemy.“
- Wellins Calcott, Thoughts Moral and Divine
“Revenge is but a small circle.“
- Edward Counsel, Maxims
“Revenge is a fervor in our own blood, to be cured only by letting the blood of another; but the remedy too often produces a relapse, which is remorse--a malady far more dreadful than the first disease, because it is incurable.“
- Charles Caleb Colton, Lacon
“The man who seeks revenge digs two graves.“
- Kenkesey, Sometimes a Great Notion
“By retaliating our sufferings on the heads of those we love, we get rid of a present uneasiness and incur lasting remorse. With the accomplishment of our revenge our fondness returns; so that we feel the injury we have done them, even more than they do.“
- William Hazlitt, Characteristics
“Revenge, like some poisonous plant, replete with baneful juices, rankles in the breast, and meditates mischief to its neighbour.“
- Wellins Calcott, Thoughts Moral and Divine
“Revenge holds another irony. It so often proves unnecessary. "Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord," wrote an ancient Hebrew sage. No mere pious platitude. An axiom of human psychology that is too little understood. Substitute "Nature" for "the Lord," if you desire. Those given to harming others bear within themselves the seeds of their own destruction. When a man injures you, it's often better to let Nature take her course. That wise old lady is pretty sure to do a juster and more artistic job of punishment than you.“
- Garret Smith, Living Sparks of Life
“The best manner of avenging ourselves is by not resembling him who injured us; and it is hardly possible for one man to be more unlike another than he that forbears to avenge himself of wrong is to him who did the wrong.“
- Jane Porter, attributed, Lifelines
“Revenge is what we call that sturdy horse, Self-Defense, when it runs amuck. Curb it and train it to stick to the road, and it will carry you far.“
- Garret Smith, Living Sparks of Life
“Revenge is a common passion; it is the sin of the uninstructed. The savage deems it noble; but Christ's religion, which is the sublime civilizer, emphatically condemns it. Why? Because religion ever seeks to ennoble man; and nothing so debases him as revenge.“
- Bulwer Lytton, My Novel or Varieties in English Life
“Revenge, the attribute of gods! They stamped it with their great image on our natures.“
- Thomas Otway, Venice Preserved
“He that has revenge in his power, and does not use it, is the greater man.“
- Wellins Calcott, Thoughts Moral and Divine
“The best revenge is massive success.“
- Frank Sinatra
“Ah, God! what trances of torments does that man endure who is consumed with one unachieved revengeful desire. He sleeps with clenched hands; and wakes with his own bloody nails in his palms.“
- Herman Melville, Moby Dick
- Mahatma Gandhi
“Revenge proves its own executioner.”
- John Ford,The Broken Heart
“I will hurt you for this. I don't know how yet, but give me time. A day will come when you think yourself safe and happy, and suddenly your joy will turn to ashes in your mouth, and you'll know the debt is paid.”
- George R.R. Martin,A Clash of Kings
“The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.”
- Marcus Aurelius,Meditations
“Not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die.”
- Anne Lamott
“When someone is mean to me, I just make them a victim in my next book.”
- Mary Higgins Clark
“Beware the fury of a patient man.”
- John Dryden
“People should either be caressed or crushed. If you do them minor damage they will get their revenge; but if you cripple them there is nothing they can do. If you need to injure someone, do it in such a way that you do not have to fear their vengeance.”
- Niccolò Machiavelli
“Vengeance and retribution require a long time; it is the rule.”
- Charles Dickens,A Tale of Two Cities
“Two wrongs dont make it right but....it makes it even!!-”
- Alex Biggs
“When we take revenge against another, we lose some of our innocence.“
- Patrice Redd Vecchione, Revenge and Forgiveness
“If I were going to set out to oppress other people, I would surely prefer to select for my victims persons whose first response is forgiveness rather than persons whose first response is revenge.“
- Jeffrie G. Murphy,Getting Even
“To take revenge halfheartedly is to court disaster: Either condemn or crown your hatred.“
- Pierre Corneille, Rodogune
“A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green.“
- Francis Bacon, Essays
“In revenge and in love woman is more barbaric than man is.“
- Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
“Murder’s out of tune,And sweet revenge grows harsh.“
- William Shakespeare, Othello
“In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy, but in passing it over he is superior.“
- Francis Bacon, Essays
“Let them that are happy talk of piety; he that would work his adversary woe must take no account of laws.“
- Euripides, Ion
“Universal though the instinct for revenge may be, it is much stronger in some of us than others. And those who have it in abundance apparently pay something of a price.“
- Ellis Cose, Bone to Pick
“Revenge, at first though sweet,Bitter ere long back on itself recoils.“
- John Milton, Paradise Lost
“I'm not real big on repentence...I like revenge better.“
- Laurell K. Hamilton, The Lunatic Cafe
“When you have the power to screw people over and you don't--well, that's when you get to show who you really are.“
- Joseph Finder, Paranoia
“To see an enemy humiliated gives a certain contentment, but this is jejune compared with the highly blent satisfaction of seeing him humiliated by your benevolent action or concession on his behalf. That is the sort of revenge which falls into the scale of virtue.“
- George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss
“Vengeance is just:
Justly we rid the earth of human fiends
Who carry hell for pattern in their souls.
But in high vengeance there is noble scorn:
It tortures not the torturer, nor gives
Iniquitous payment for iniquity.
The great avenging angel does not crawl
To kill the serpent with a mimic fang;
He stands erect, with sword of keenest edge
That slays like lightning.“
- George Eliot, The Spanish Gypsy
“Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.“
- Francis Bacon, Essays
“Revenge is often like biting a dog because the dog bit you.“
- Austin O'malley, Keystones of Thought
“When violence hurries on too fast, and caution does not keep pace with revenge, people generally do themselves more harm than the enemy.“
- Wellins Calcott, Thoughts Moral and Divine
“Revenge is but a small circle.“
- Edward Counsel, Maxims
“Revenge is a fervor in our own blood, to be cured only by letting the blood of another; but the remedy too often produces a relapse, which is remorse--a malady far more dreadful than the first disease, because it is incurable.“
- Charles Caleb Colton, Lacon
“The man who seeks revenge digs two graves.“
- Kenkesey, Sometimes a Great Notion
“By retaliating our sufferings on the heads of those we love, we get rid of a present uneasiness and incur lasting remorse. With the accomplishment of our revenge our fondness returns; so that we feel the injury we have done them, even more than they do.“
- William Hazlitt, Characteristics
“Revenge, like some poisonous plant, replete with baneful juices, rankles in the breast, and meditates mischief to its neighbour.“
- Wellins Calcott, Thoughts Moral and Divine
“Revenge holds another irony. It so often proves unnecessary. "Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord," wrote an ancient Hebrew sage. No mere pious platitude. An axiom of human psychology that is too little understood. Substitute "Nature" for "the Lord," if you desire. Those given to harming others bear within themselves the seeds of their own destruction. When a man injures you, it's often better to let Nature take her course. That wise old lady is pretty sure to do a juster and more artistic job of punishment than you.“
- Garret Smith, Living Sparks of Life
“The best manner of avenging ourselves is by not resembling him who injured us; and it is hardly possible for one man to be more unlike another than he that forbears to avenge himself of wrong is to him who did the wrong.“
- Jane Porter, attributed, Lifelines
“Revenge is what we call that sturdy horse, Self-Defense, when it runs amuck. Curb it and train it to stick to the road, and it will carry you far.“
- Garret Smith, Living Sparks of Life
“Revenge is a common passion; it is the sin of the uninstructed. The savage deems it noble; but Christ's religion, which is the sublime civilizer, emphatically condemns it. Why? Because religion ever seeks to ennoble man; and nothing so debases him as revenge.“
- Bulwer Lytton, My Novel or Varieties in English Life
“Revenge, the attribute of gods! They stamped it with their great image on our natures.“
- Thomas Otway, Venice Preserved
“He that has revenge in his power, and does not use it, is the greater man.“
- Wellins Calcott, Thoughts Moral and Divine
“The best revenge is massive success.“
- Frank Sinatra
“Ah, God! what trances of torments does that man endure who is consumed with one unachieved revengeful desire. He sleeps with clenched hands; and wakes with his own bloody nails in his palms.“
- Herman Melville, Moby Dick