Retribution

Sunday, February 9, 2020 – Retribution

Men ought either to be indulged or utterly destroyed, for if you merely offend them they take vengeance, but if you injure them greatly they are unable to retaliate, so that the injury done to a man ought to be such that vengeance cannot be feared. ~ Niccolo Machiavelli

Certainly, in taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy, but in passing it over, he is superior; for it is a prince’s part to pardon. ~ Francis Bacon

The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury. ~ Marcus Aurelius

It is impossible to suffer without making someone pay for it; every complaint already contains revenge. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness. ~ Josh Billings

Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive. ~ Edward Gibbon

Revenge is not always sweet, once it is consummated we feel inferior to our victim. ~ Emile M. Cioran

Revenge is sweet and not fattening. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

We should forgive our enemies, but not before they are hanged. ~ Heinrich Heine

Deep vengeance is the daughter of deep silence. ~ Vittorio Alfieri

Just vengeance does not call for punishment. ~ Pierre Corneille

Vengeance is not the point; change is. But the trouble is that in most people’s minds the thought of victory and the thought of punishing the enemy coincide. ~ Barbara Deming

In theory it may seem all right to some, but when it comes to being made the instrument of the Lord’s vengeance, I myself don’t like it. ~ Robert Gould Shaw

Vengeance is the act of turning anger in on yourself. On the surface it may be directed at someone else, but it is a surefire recipe for arresting emotional recovery. ~ Jane Goldman

I want to be indifferent to vengeance. It’s degrading. Not having a spirit of vengeance protects me, internally. ~ Segolene Royal

I am often thought of as being remarkably bright, and yet my brains, more often than not, are busily devising new and interesting ways of bringing my enemies to sudden, gagging, writhing agonizing death. ~ Alan Bradley

I know there are people who believe you should forgive and forget. For the record, I’d like to say I’m a big fan of forgiveness as long as I’m given the opportunity to get even first. ~ Sue Grafton

Vengeance, retaliation, retribution, revenge are deceitful brothers; vile, beguiling demons promising justifiable compensation to a pained soul for his losses. Yet in truth they craftily fester away all else of worth remaining. ~ Richelle E. Goodrich

You can get angry, you can get even, or you can get ahead. ~ Jeffrey Fry

The problem is that no matter how good your intentions, eventually you want to kill someone yourself. ~ Kenneth Cain

Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee. ~ Herman Melville, Moby Dick

Look, chief, you can’t go off half-cocked looking for vengeance against a fish. That shark isn’t evil. It’s not a murderer. It’s just obeying its own instincts. Trying to get retribution against a fish is crazy. ~ Peter Benchley, Jaws

There is no elegance in hate, but there is tremendous beauty in the unintended revenge of living well and being happy. ~ Victoria Malin Gregory

Something of vengeance I had tasted for the first time; as aromatic wine it seemed, on swallowing, warm and racy: its after-flavor, metallic and corroding, gave me a sensation as if I had been poisoned. ~ Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

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

Nothing is more costly, nothing is more sterile, than vengeance. ~ Winston Churchill

Vengeance has no foresight. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

When we take revenge against another, we lose some of our innocence. ~ Patrice Redd Vecchione

A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green. ~ Francis Bacon, Essays

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

Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die. ~ Saint Augustine

To carry a grudge is like being stung to death by one bee. ~ William H. Walton

The final proof of greatness lies in being able to endure criticism without resentment. ~ Elbert Hubbard

I wish I was less good-looking and more unpopular. Then I could get into politics and use my pent-up resentment about being ugly and unpopular to systematically destroy the country. ~ Taika Waititi

Populism has had as many incarnations as it has had provocations, but its constant ingredient has been resentment, and hence whininess. Populism does not wax in tranquil times; it is a cathartic response to serious problems. But it always wanes because it never seems serious as a solution. ~ George Will

Imagine the people who believe such things and who are not ashamed to ignore, totally, all the patient findings of thinking minds through all the centuries since the Bible was written. And it is these ignorant people, the most uneducated, the most unimaginative, the most unthinking among us, who would make themselves the guides and leaders of us all; who would force their feeble and childish beliefs on us; who would invade our schools and libraries and homes. I personally resent it bitterly. ~ Isaac Asimov

At the heart of all anger, all grudges, and all resentment, you’ll always find a fear that hopes to stay anonymous. ~ Donald L. Hicks

At least in the United States, most economic resentment is not directed toward billionaires or high-roller financiers – not even corrupt ones. It’s directed at the guy down the hall who got a bigger raise. It’s directed at the husband of your wife’s sister, because he earns twenty percent more than you do. ~ Tyler Cowen

Resentment is not morally superior to earning money. ~ Paul Singer

To show resentment at a reproach is to acknowledge that one may have deserved it. ~ Tacitus

Nobody really wants us. So let us watch and say jaggy things, in the hope that some of them will hurt. ~ J. M. Barrie

A long-simmering resentment against the world can burn off more calories than you might imagine. ~ Paul Russell

Let your enemies be disarmed by the gentleness of your manner, but at the same time let them feel the steadiness of your resentment. ~ Philip Stanhope, Fourth Earl of Chesterfield

Never underestimate spite as a motivator for genius. ~ Sam Kean

My talent was the uncompromising ability to feel spite. ~ Natsuo Kirino

I like to write when I feel spiteful. It’s like having a good sneeze. ~ D. H. Lawrence

It has always seemed strange to me that the things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second. ~ John Steinbeck

As all error is meanness, it is incumbent on every man who consults his own dignity, to retract it as soon as he discovers it. ~ Samuel Johnson

There is nothing more galling to angry people than the coolness of those on whom they wish to vent their spleen. ~ Alexandre Dumas