revenge quotes

Richard Nixon self-impeached†[and] gave us General Ford as his revenge.

- Bella originally Bella Savitzky Abzug
  In Rolling Stone, 2 Dec.

There is no passion in the mind of man so weak, but it mates and mastersthefearofdeath. And therefore death is no such terrible enemy, when a man hath so many attendants about him that can win the combat of him. Revenge triumphs over death; love slights it; honour aspireth to it; grief flieth to it.

- Francis,Viscount St Albans Bacon
  Essays, no.2,'Of Death'.

Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.

- Francis,Viscount St Albans Bacon
  Essays, no.4,'Of Revenge'.

Sweet is revengeespecially to women.

-Rochdale
^24  Don Juan, canto1, stanza124.

She once used me with that insolence that in revenge I took her topieces;siftedher, and separatedher failings;I studied 'em, and got 'em by rote. The catalogue was so large that I was not without hopes, one day or other, to hate her heartily.

-William Congreve
  The Way of the World, act1, sc.3.

   A few professional alienists understood his importance, but to most of the public he appeared as some kind of German sexologist, an exponent of free love who used big words to talk about dirty things. At least a decade would have to pass before Freud would have his revenge and seehisideas beginto destroysex in America forever.

- E(dgar) L(awrence) Doctorow
  Ragtime, ch.5.

The word permanent†had its own kind of revenge on those who misused it, for the Bible said that nothing was permanent and everything came and went.

-Janet Paterson also known as Jean PatersonFrame Frame
  To the Is-land, ch.2,'Toward the Is-Land'.

Punishment is not for revenge, but to lessen crime and reform the criminal.

- Elizabeth Fry
Quoted in Rachel E Cresswell and Katharine Fry Memoir of the Life of Elizabeth Fry (1848).

There are minds so impatient of inferiority, that their gratitude is a species of revenge, and they return benefits, not because recompense is a pleasure, but because obligation is a pain.

- Samuel known as Dr Johnson Johnson
^2  In The Rambler.

As Ihavejust come frommaking my Easterconfessionon Good Fridayand have forgiven all those who trespass against me, I cannot harbour any thoughts of revenge, only contempt for an arrant shit who is bursting with pride, although he is simply being taken for a ride by his women.

-Joseph II
  Of the senior dignitary of the Holy Roman Empire, the Elector- Archbishop of Mainz. Letter to Trauttmansdorff (his representative at Mainz),14  Apr. Quoted in T C  W Blanning Joseph II (1994), p.148.

   What though the field be lost? All is not lost; the unconquerable will, And study of revenge, immortal hate, And courage never to submit or yield.

-John Milton
  Satan addressing the fallen angels. Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.1, l.105^8.

This would surpass Common revenge.

-John Milton
  Beelzebub speaking of the plan to tempt Man away from God. Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.2, l.370^1.

So bent he seems On desperate revenge, that shall redound Upon his own rebellious head.

-John Milton
  Of Satan. Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.3, l.84^6.

Das moralische Urteilen undVerurteilen ist die Lieblings- Rache der Geistig-Beschr a« nkten an denen, die es weniger sind. Moral judgement and condemnation is the favourite form of revenge of the spiritually limited on those who are less so.

- FriedrichWilhelm Nietzsche
  Jenseits von Gut und Bo«  se (Beyond Good and Evil), section 219 (translated by R  J Hollingdale).

I went out to Charing Cross to see Major-General Harrison hanged, drawn and quarteredwhich was done therehe looking as cheerfully as any man could do in that condition† Thus it was my chance to see the King beheaded at Whitehall and to see the first blood shed in revenge for the blood of the King at Charing Cross.

- Samuel Pepys
  Diary entry,13 Oct.

Thetrouble isthat we drink toomuchtea.I see inthisthe slow revenge of the Orient, which has diverted the Yellow River down our throats.

-J(ohn) B(oynton) Priestley
  In the Observer,15 May.

Interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art.

- Susan Sontag
  In The Evergreen Review, Dec.

And little Revengeherself went down by the island crags To be lost evermore in the main.

-Tennyson
  'The Revenge', stanza14, l.118^19.