Revenge has long been a theme woven into the fabric of human expression, an intricate tapestry of raw emotions and deep-seated sentiments. From classic literature to modern films, the allure of vengeance captivates our imaginations by tapping into our primal urges for justice and closure. This collection of quotes explores the many facets of revenge, capturing its power and its pitfalls, its savagery and its solace. We delve into the whisper of retribution with words that cut sharper than a sword, confronting the elemental desire for payback and the transformative journey it beckons. As you'll find, these quotes about revenge are as thought-provoking as they are resonant, offering a kaleidoscope of perspectives on a timeless human instinct.
Quotes on the Nature of Revenge
"Revenge is a dish best served cold." - Unknown
"Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves." - Confucius
"Revenge is sweeter than honey." - Homer
"The best revenge is massive success." - Frank Sinatra
"Living well is the best revenge." - George Herbert
"Revenge, at first though sweet, bitter ere long, back on itself recoils." - John Milton
"An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind." - Mahatma Gandhi
"Success is the best revenge for anything." - Ed Sheeran
"Revenge proves its own executioner." - John Ford
"There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness." - Josh Billings
"A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green." - Francis Bacon
"Forgiveness is far more powerful than revenge." - Philip Gibbs
Quotes About Revenge and Forgiveness
"Forgive others, not because they deserve forgiveness, but because you deserve peace." - Jonathan Lockwood Huie
"It’s easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend." - William Blake
"Forgiveness liberates the soul. It removes fear." - Nelson Mandela
"Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it." - Mark Twain
"To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you." - Lewis B. Smedes
"Forgiveness is the final form of love." - Reinhold Niebuhr
"We win by tenderness. We conquer by forgiveness." - Frederick William Robertson
"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." - Mahatma Gandhi
"Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies." - Nelson Mandela
"Anger makes you smaller, while forgiveness forces you to grow beyond what you were." - Cherie Carter-Scott
"Forgive, forget. Bear with the faults of others as you would have them bear with yours." - Phillips Brooks
"To err is human, to forgive divine." - Alexander Pope
Quotes on Revenge and Justice
"Justice is revenge without the hatred." - Unknown
"We all take revenge sometimes, but revenge doesn't remove the spiritual damage of injustice." - Deepak Chopra
"Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are." - Benjamin Franklin
"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"Justice delayed is justice denied." - William E. Gladstone
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"Fairness is what justice really is." - Potter Stewart
"Justice consists not in being neutral between right and wrong, but in finding out the right and upholding it, wherever found, against the wrong." - Theodore Roosevelt
"The dead cannot cry out for justice, it is a duty of the living to do so for them." - Lois McMaster Bujold
"Justice is truth in action." - Benjamin Disraeli
"If it were not for injustice, men would not know justice." - Heraclitus
"The law isn't justice. It's a very imperfect mechanism." - Raymond Chandler
Quotes on the Consequences of Revenge
"He that studieth revenge keepeth his own wounds green." - Francis Bacon
"Revenge, the sweetest morsel to the mouth that ever was cooked in hell." - Walter Scott
"In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior." - Francis Bacon
"The axe forgets; the tree remembers." - African Proverb
"Revenge only engenders violence, not clarity and true peace. I think liberation must come from within." - Sandra Cisneros
"When you begin a journey of revenge, start by digging two graves: one for your enemy, and one for yourself." - Jodi Picoult
"Seeking revenge puts you beneath the offender." - Unknown
"He who seeks vengeance must dig two graves: one for his enemy and one for himself." - Chinese Proverb
"Revenge... is like a rolling stone, which, when a man hath forced up a hill, will return upon him with a greater violence." - Jeremy Taylor
"Those who plot the destruction of others often perish in the attempt." - Phaedrus
"Vengeance is mine, and I will repay." - Bible
"Sweet is revenge—especially to women." - Lord Byron
Quotes on Revenge and Power
"Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged; crimes are avenged." - Samuel Johnson
"True revenge is to make it uncomfortable for others, without getting affected by the situation." - Harshada Pathare
"Revenge is a powerful motivator, but it can also be a great teacher." - Megyn Blanchard
"If it feels good getting even, you're probably taking the road most traveled." - Harriet Segal
"Revenge, a timeless power for the powerless." - Unknown
"The power to wreak vengeance is a mighty temptation." - Jane Austen
"Bitterness and revenge only chain you down." - Patricia Briggs
"Never does the human soul appear so strong as when it forgoes revenge and dares to forgive an injury." - Edwin Hubbel Chapin
"The greatest ideas are the greatest events." - Friedrich Nietzsche
"Revenge turns a little right into a great wrong." - Latin Proverb
"The power to dissolve revenge is the power to see beyond it." - Unknown
"Vengeance is the recourse of the dissatisfied." - Unknown
Quotes on Revenge in Literature
"If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?" - William Shakespeare
"Revenge is a kind of wild justice." - Francis Bacon
"Hatred, which could destroy so much, never failed to destroy the man who hated and this was an immutable law." - James Baldwin
"It is the Old Law: Eye for eye. Tooth for tooth. Hand for hand. Foot for foot." - Bible
"The villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction." - William Shakespeare
"Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries—for heavy ones they cannot." - Niccolò Machiavelli
"Revenge, we find, the abject plebeian states of heaven and hell invent in guilt." - John Milton
"The best way to enact revenge is to better yourself." - Unknown
"How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours." - Wayne Dyer
"There is falser comfort in revenge than real sweetness in life." - Anne Lamott
"Forgive, yes. But not forget—lethal mistakes must be remembered." - Tess Gerritsen
"Revenge may be wicked, but it’s natural." - William Makepeace Thackeray
Quotes on Revenge and Wisdom
"Wise men are not always silent, but they know when to be." - Unknown
"Revenge can only return us to who we were once, it cannot help us become who we should be." - Harold Kushner
"What you put out into the world is what you get back." - Unknown
"True wisdom is knowing what not to do." - Unknown
"The cleverest of all is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month." - Fyodor Dostoevsky
"Be wise today so you don't cry tomorrow." - E.A. Bucchianeri
"Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishments give lustre, and many more people see than weigh." - Earl of Chesterfield
"It requires wisdom to understand wisdom." - Walter Lippmann
"The real wisdom is to be prepared for anything life throws at you." - Unknown
"A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer." - Bruce Lee
"Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter." - Mark Twain
"Revenge is a confession of pain." - Latin Proverb
Quotes on Revenge and Satisfaction
"Some may smile at satisfaction, others hope only with revenge." - Unknown
"Revenge may belong to others, satisfaction is a personal affair." - Unknown
"Satisfaction thrives where revenge starves." - Unknown
"A wise satisfaction is the antithesis of revenge." - Unknown
"Revenge may gratify the mind, satisfaction gratifies the heart." - Unknown
"Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory." - Mahatma Gandhi
"The best revenge is just moving on and getting over it. Don’t give someone the satisfaction of watching you suffer." - Unknown
"Revenge is for childish satisfaction, success for the wise." - Unknown
"Satisfaction overrides revenge." - Unknown
"Count your smiles, not your tears; your courage, not your fears; your friends, not your years." - Unknown
"The greatest satisfaction lies in forgiving, not in seeking vengeance." - Unknown
"Revenge isn't always sweet, once it is consummate we feel inferior to our victim." - Emil Ludwig
Philosophical Quotes on Revenge
"To take revenge halfheartedly is to court disaster: either condemn or crown your hatred." - Pierre Corneille
"Revenge is an admission of pain; a desire to make others suffer as you have suffered." - Kaiman Khy
"Even sweeter than revenge is connection." - Alan Alda
"The man who seeks revenge digs two graves." - Unknown
"Revenge is an insidious space, it leaves the soul empty." - Unknown
"It is nobler to suffer a wrong than to do one." - Unknown
"Yield not to calamity, but take a brave stand." - Unknown
"Suffer yourself to be wronged, God will give you wisdom and joy." - Mary C. Neal
"The universe is balanced. Every act of good and every act of vengeance have their own dues." - Unknown
"The noblest revenge is to forgive." - Thomas Fuller
"Revenge may tempt you, but wisdom bypasses you." - Unknown
"Anger and revenge feed the darkness within, not the soul's light." - Unknown
Quotes on Revenge and Karma
"How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours." - Wayne Dyer
"Karma moves in two directions. If we act virtuously, the seed we plant will result in happiness. If we act non-virtuously, suffering results." - Sakyong Mipham
"Contrary to popular belief, you cannot fight fire with fire. In numerology, positive and negative numbers cancel out, but in life, they proliferate." - Unknown
"For whatever a man sows, this he will also reap." - Bible
"Karma has no menu, you get served what you deserve." - Unknown
"The law of karma is inexorable." - Unknown
"Relevant retribution is better left to the wheel of karma." - Unknown
"Revenge may heal individuals, but it seldom cures society." - Unknown
"Reflect before you react, for your course of action writes your karma." - Unknown
"Revenge is a boomerang that only comes back on the one in whom it was thrown." - Unknown
"Energy flows where attention goes. Nurture the thoughts you wish to manifest." - Unknown
"Karma dares you to forgive others because life dares to forgive itself." - Unknown
Final words
The exploration of revenge through these quotes has unveiled its complexity and varying dimensions. From the ancient wisdom of Confucius to contemporary reflections, the sentiments span from the primal urge for retribution to the enlightening path of forgiveness. Revenge is a potent motivator that can catalyze both personal destruction and growth. While some find solace in retaliation, others discover strength in moving forward, seeking justice or embracing forgiveness. This article serves to remind us that while revenge can feel like reclaiming power and fairness, it often clouds judgment and prolongs suffering. Wisdom often lies in understanding when to seek justice, when to forgive, and the strength inherent in choosing peace over conflict.
Explore a comprehensive collection of over 100 insightful quotes about revenge that delve into the complexities of human emotions and the consequences of vengeance. Perfect for those seeking wisdom and perspective.
