Revenge generally refers to the act of seeking retaliation or retribution for a perceived wrong or harm. It involves taking action to harm or hurt someone in response to a real or imagined offense. Revenge is often driven by strong emotions such as anger, resentment, or a desire for justice. It is distinct from justice in that it is usually more personal, and emotional, and may involve actions that go beyond legal or societal norms.
It’s important to note that revenge is often seen as a negative and destructive impulse, as it can perpetuate a cycle of conflict and harm. Many ethical and moral frameworks advocate for forgiveness, resolution, or finding peaceful ways to address grievances instead of resorting to revenge.
Revenge Quotes
1. “The best revenge is to live on and prove yourself.”
— Eddie Vedder
2. “Neglect kills injuries, revenge increases them.”
— Ben Franklin
3. “An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.”
— Mahatma Gandhi
4. “When you begin a journey of revenge, start by digging two graves: one for your enemy, and one for yourself.”
— Jodi Picoult
5. “It is commonly said that revenge is sweet, but to a calm and considerate mind, patience and forgiveness are sweeter.”
— Isaac Burrow
6. “To seek greatness is the only righteous vengeance.”
— Criss Jami
7. “Revenge is not worthy of you. If you concentrate on revenge, you will keep those wounds fresh that would otherwise have healed.”
— Adeline Yen Mah
8. “Revenge is not sweet; it is gloomy and a waste of time.”
— Anna Bayes
9. “Always stay gracious, the best revenge is your paper.”
— Beyonce
10. “A man who contemplates revenge keeps his wounds green.”
— Francis Bacon
11. “The old law about an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.
12. “There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness.”
— Josh Billings
13. “Revenge proves its own executioner.”
— John Ford
14. “Not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die.”
— Anne Lamott
15. “Revenge can only be found on the road to self-destruction.”
— Wayne Gerard Trotman
16. “Revenge is not always sweet, once it is consummated we feel inferior to our victim.”
— Emile M. Cioran
17. “Revenge is the act of passion, vengeance is an act of justice.”
— Samuel Johnson
18. “Revenge is often like biting a dog because the dog bit you.”
— AUSTIN O’MALLEY
19. “Revenge is always the weak pleasure of a little and narrow mind.”
— Juvenal
20. “The best revenge is to show them that your life is getting better after they’re gone.”
— Nishan Panwar
21. The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.”
— Marcus Aurelius
22. “Living well is the best revenge.”
— George Herbert
23. “Revenge may be wicked, but it’s natural.”
— William Makepeace Thackeray
24. “He that has revenge in his power, and does not use it, is the greater man.”
— WELLINS CALCOTT
25. “Revenge is not a noble sentiment, but it is a human one.”
— Rudy Giuliani
26. “Revenge is what I want. Nothing but pure unadulterated revenge. But my mother brought me up to be a lady.”
— J. P. Donleavy
27. “The man who seeks revenge digs two graves.”
— Ken Kesey
28. “There is nothing wrong with revenge. The wrong has already been done, or there would be no need to even the score.”
— Ashly Lorenzana
29. “A need for revenge can burn long and hot. Especially if every glance in a mirror reinforces it.”
— Suzanne Collins
30. “The soul of mercy is better than a soul that is revengeful.”
— Angelina Elise
31. “Revenge is never the answer.”
— Kasie West
32. “Nothing inspires forgiveness quite like revenge.”
— SCOTT ADAMS
33. “Revenge is barren of itself: it is the dreadful food it feeds on; its delight is murder, and its end is despair.”
— Friedrich Schiller
34. “Revenge is an infection of the spirit.”
— Jonathan Maberry
35. “Success is the best revenge.”
— Kanye West
36. “Revenge is backward looking, whereas rationality is forward looking — so the two fail to engage.”
— Alan Hamlin
37. “Funny thing about revenge. It could make a killer out of a nun.”
— Kevis Hendrickson
38. “I want revenge, but I don’t want to screw up my karma.”
— Susane Colasanti
39. “Revenge is the infliction of pain, in consequence of the neglect or violation of duty.”
— ELHANAN WINCHESTER
40. “I’ve learned that from a war ignited by revenge, nothing can be born, but sorrow. – Aladdin”
— Shinobu Ohtaka
41. “A man who desires revenge should dig two graves.”
— Unknown
42. “Revenge, the sweetest morsel to the mouth that ever was cooked in hell.”
— Walter Scott
43. “Revenge is Always Sweet, it’s the Aftertaste that’s Bitter.”
— Joshua Caleb
44. “An eye for an eye is never enough. Never, never, never.”
— Adrian Phoenix
45. “While seeking revenge, dig two graves—one for yourself.”
— Douglas Horton
46. “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
47. “Revenge is never the best driver for a battle, but a common one.”
— Janet Morris
48. “Revenge has its own special taste.”
— Job
49. Revenge is the raging fire that consumes the arsonist.”
— Max Lucado
50. “There is no such thing as justice, all the best that we can hope for is revenge.”
— Emilie Autumn
51. “The best revenge, if ya gotta have it, is sweet success.”
— Tripsy South
52. “If you feel like you need revenge, getting it won’t help you.”
— Steve Maraboli
53. “Writing poems is the best revenge.”
— Christina Strigas
54. “When you repay evil with evil, you become evil.”
— Wayne Gerard Trotman
55. “The most deceptive thing about revenge is in thinking that we’re not hurt by it, when in fact we’re the one’s most hurt by it.”
— Craig D. Lounsbrough
56. “I don’t seek revenge because the karma bus always arrives on time.”
— Fuad Alakbarov
57. “Inner peace is best achieved when you realize the best revenge is no revenge.”
— Joe Mehl
58. “The best revenge in life is living.”
— Melissa McPhail
59. “Revenge is sweet but not nourishing.”
— Mason Cooley
60. “Revenge is an orphan in bad company she had learnt. Until it accepts the truth, it may never find grace.”
— Sanchit Gupta
61. “The greatest form of retaliation is not loving your enemy but ignoring them.”
— Bongha Lee
62. “Revenge is weak when provocation is the reason to prepare us strong for any battle.”
— Alan Maiccon
63. “Loyalty feeds my passion for revenge.”
— Robert Black
64. “If only, revenge had the power to bring peace.”
— Shweta Grewal
65. “Revenge is empty.”
— K. Weikel
66. “In a nutshell, revenge cannot reverse the loss.”
— Marina Cantacuzino
67. “For the Christian, revenge is a dish best not served at all.”
— Todd Stocker
68. “Revenge itself may indeed be the best revenge, but slaying one’s enemy does not give back what they stole.”
— Emilie Autumn
69. “However miserable you make us, we shall still have the revenge of thinking that your cruelty arises from your greater misery.”
— Emily Brontë
70. “A merciful heart beats contently stronger than many vengeful ones.”
— Munia Khan
71. “He who plots to hurt others often hurts himself.”
— Aesop
72. “The noblest revenge is to forgive.”
— Thomas Fuller
73. “Revenge is a confession of pain.”
— Latin Proverb
74. “Success is the best revenge for anything. Keep your head down and work hard to achieve.”
— Ed Sheeran
75. “I’m a fighter. I believe in the eye-for-an-eye business. I’m no cheek turner. I got no respect for a man who won’t hit back. You kill my dog, you better hide your cat.”
— Muhammad Ali
76. “There is no need for revenge. Living happily ever after is a sign that you have not let the past beat you.”
— Leon Brown
77. “Don’t waste time on revenge. The people who hurt you will eventually face their own karma.”
— Unknown
78. “Living well eliminates the need for revenge.”
— Kanye West
79. “Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.”
— Confucius
80. “Real revenge is making something of yourself.”
— Gerard Way
81. “The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.”
— Marcus Aurelius
82. “We should forgive our enemies, but not before they are hanged.”
— Heinrich Heine
83. “When someone is mean to me, I just make them a victim in my next book.”
— Mary Higgins Clark
84. “Every blade has two edges; he who wounds with one, wounds himself with the other.”
— Victor Hugo
85. “Two wrongs don’t make a right, but neither does one. Revenge may seem petty by day, but on some nights she becomes Justice.”
— Ashly Lorenzana
86. “Perish the universe, provided I have my revenge!”
— Cyrano de Bergerac
87. “Revenge is a dish best eaten cold and there is no sweeter dish than outliving an enemy.”
— Don Darkes
88. “I neither revenge nor forgive, I just choose to ignore.”
— Irfan Rahat
89. “Revenge is sweet and not fattening.”
— Alfred Hitchcock
90. “Most victories are, in the best way, acts of revenge.”
— Alain de Botton
91. “I don’t want revenge on the Taliban, I want education for sons and daughters of the Taliban.”
— Malala Yousafzai
92. “Spending plenty of time on something can be the most sophisticated form of revenge.”
— Haruki Murakami
93. “But the best revenge for naysayers is living well. And living well is doing your job and taking care of your family.”
— Jalen Rose
94. “He felt like the last bullet in a gun meant for revenge, sealed with a kiss.”
— Pete Wentz
95. “A lot of horrible, unfair, untrue things have been said about me. I can only say that the best revenge is success.”
— Kate Moss
96. “The best revenge in the world is success.”
— Suge Knight
97. “Anything worth having is hard to get, therefore – anything worth losing is hard to let go. Success is revenge.”
— DeMario Cash
98. “Why seek revenge? Karma is going to get the bastards anyway.”
— Ajahn Brahm
99. “Education is the best revenge.”
— Khalid Masood
100. “The best revenge you can have on intellectuals is to be madly happy.”
— Albert Camus
101. “Gorgeous hair is the best revenge.”
— Ivana Trump
102. “The best revenge is massive success.”
— Frank Sinatra
103. “Our revenge will be the laughter of our children.”
— Bobby Sands
104. “Survival was my only hope, success my only revenge.”
— Patricia Cornwell
105. “When a man steals your wife, there is no better revenge than to let him keep her.”
— Sacha Guitry
106. “Revenge and retaliation always perpetuate the cycle of anger, fear and violence.”
— Coretta Scott King
107. “Instead of a man of peace and love, I have become a man of violence and revenge.”
— Hiawatha
108. “Men should be either treated generously or destroyed because they take revenge for slight injuries – for heavy ones they cannot.”
— Niccolo Machiavelli
109. “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
110. “Revenge… is like a rolling stone, which, when a man hath forced up a hill, will return upon him with a greater violence, and break those bones whose sinews gave it motion.”
— Jeremy Taylor
111. “The paradox of vengefulness is that it makes men dependent upon those who have harmed them, believing that their release from pain will come only when their tormentors suffer.”
— Laura Hillenbrand
112. “I shall revenge myself in the cruelest way you can imagine. I shall forget it.”
— John Steinbeck
113. “The way of revenge lies simply in forcing one’s way into a place and being cut down. There is no shame in this. By thinking you must complete the job you will run out of time.”
— Yamamoto Tsunetomo
114. “The rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance.”
— William Shakespeare
115. “The nearer I approached to your habitation, the more deeply did I feel the spirit of revenge enkindled in my heart.”
— Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
116. “Oh, God,” said Monte Cristo, “your vengeance may sometimes be slow in coming, but I think that then it is all the more complete.”
— Alexander Dumas
117. “Could all be lies. Could all be part of revenge scheme, planned during his decade behind bars. But if true, then what? […] Never mind. Answers soon. Nothing is insoluble.”
— Alan Moore
118. “Our revenge will be achieved not through subjugation but by contagion.”
— James Luceno
119. “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!”
— William Goldman
120. “Consider none your superior, whatever their rank or station in life. Treat all fairly, or they will seek revenge.”
— Christopher Paolini
121. “Revenge is never pretty and often leaves you empty.”
— C.J. Ellisson
122. “Everyone knows revenge is a dish best served when you’ve had enough time to build up enough vitriol and fury.”
— Sophie Kinsella
123. “Revenge. They took too much. You give up and die, or learn how to take back.”
— Karen Marie Moning
124. Revenge is a meal best served cold.”
— Denzel Washington
125. “Revenge feels right only to those directly involved. Justice feels right even to outsiders.”
— Marilyn vos Savant
126. “The whirligig of time brings in his revenge.”
— William Shakespeare
127. Revenge is just a really good drive for drama and good action.”
— Niels Arden Oplev
128. “One ingredient of revenge is always pride.”
— Eleanor Dark
129. “The more I think about it, the more I believe there has to be a subtle yet satisfying method of revenge.”
— Ellen Hopkins
130. “Happiness is the best revenge, you know? Just be happy. It’s a choice.”
— Emily Giffin
131. “Revenge is like a ghost. It takes over every man it touches. Its thirst cannot be quenched until the last man standing has fallen.”
— Vladimir Makarov
132. “Revenge is private and personal, and so readily gets out of hand.”
— Ernest Lucas
133. “To refrain from imitation is the best revenge.”
— Marcus Aurelius
134. “It is more noble to forgive, and more manly to despise than to revenge an Injury.”
— Benjamin Franklin
135. “Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive.”
— Edward Gibbon
136. “Revenge is the naked idol of the worship of a semi-barbarous age.”
— Percy Bysshe Shelley
137. “While revenge weakens society, forgiveness gives it strength.”
— Dalai Lama
138. “Revenge can be bittersweet, but if you sit back and watch, karma can be pure entertainment.”
— Ritu Ghatourey
139. “Living well and ripping your enemy’s still-beating heart out with your bare hands is the best revenge.”
— Michael O’Donoghue
140. “Revenge only engenders violence, not clarity and true peace. I think liberation must come from within.”
— Sandra Cisneros
141. “A woman’s desire for revenge outlasts all her other emotions.”
— Cyril Connolly
142. “I tasted too what was called the sweet of revenge – but it was transient, it expired even with the object, that provoked it.”
— Ann Radcliffe
143. “After rejection – misery, then thoughts of revenge, and finally, oh well, another try elsewhere.”
— Mason Cooley
144. “Only remember this: to seek justice is a good and noble thing, to seek revenge out of hatred is something that will devour your very soul.”
— James Mace
145. “Revenge is a luscious fruit which you must leave to ripen.”
— Emile Gaboriau
146. “The best revenge, like the best sex, is performed slowly, and with the eyes open.”
— Gregory David Roberts
147. “All calls for justice require that victims feel avenged, and revenge is never just if it’s disproportionate.”
— Thane Rosenbaum
148. “No matter how many times people try to criticize you, the best revenge is to prove them wrong.”
— Zayn Malik
149. “Every failure made me more confident. Because I wanted even more to achieve as revenge, to show that I could.”
— Roman Polanski
150. “The best revenge is to live an awesome life.”
— Ramon Bautista
151. “I’ve been in the revenge business for so long, now that it’s over I don’t know what to do with the rest of my life.”
— William Goldman
152. “We should have just killed him, that’s a lesson, don’t get creative with revenge.”
— China Miéville
153. “The best revenge is living well, my dad told me once.”
— Barry Lyga
154. “Two things you should never do in a hurry: makeup and revenge.”
— Iveta Cherneva
155. “When Everything you’ve had is stolen from you, all you have left is REVENGE.”
— Emily Thorne
156. “When it comes to exacting revenge, it gets harder and harder to top yourself each successive time.”
— Josh Stern
157. “I chose not to fight it. Eating them…is my revenge.”
— J.H. Myn
