c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
Karma comes after everyone eventually. You can't get away with screwing people over your whole life, I don't care who you are. What goes around comes around. That's how it works. Sooner or later the universe will serve you the revenge that you deserve.
— Jessica Brody, The Karma Club
Revenge proves its own executioner.
— John  Ford, The Broken Heart
When you begin a journey of revenge, start by digging two graves: one for your enemy, and one for yourself.
— Jodi Picoult, Nineteen Minutes
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
Beware the fury of a patient man.
— John Dryden
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, The Greatest My Own Story
I don't like it, but my hands are tied. I just want you to know this: if I ever get the chance to betray you, I will. If the opportunity arises to pay you back, I'll take it. You'll never be able to trust me.
— Darren Shan, A Living Nightmare
Insecure people only eclipse your sun because they’re jealous of your daylight and tired of their dark, starless nights.
— Shannon L. Alder
Fool that I am," said he,"that I did not tear out my heart the day I resolved to revenge myself".
— Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
...to the last I grapple with thee
—  from hell's heart I stab at thee
I clench my fists and try not to scream and I tuck my friends in my hea
— Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me
Vengeance and retribution require a long time
—  it is the rule.
I want to be able to see stuff," Iggy said. "Like I used to, when I was little. And I want to be able to totally kick Jeb's butt.
— James Patterson, The Angel Experiment
...And you, you better run because i'm going to destroy you for what you've taken from me.
— Samantha Young, Blood Will Tell
She smiles at our husband as she moves, and he blushes, overcome by her beauty. But I know what her smile really means...Her smile is her revenge.
— Lauren DeStefano, Wither
Mind my words, Cheshire, I will have you banished from this kingdom if you tempt me.""An empty threat from an empty girl."She rounded on him, teeth flashing. "I am not empty. I am full to the brim with murder and revenge. I am overflowing and I do not think you wish for me to overflow on to you.""There was a time" – Cheshire yawned – "when you overflowed with whimsy and icing sugar. I liked that Catherine better.
— Marissa Meyer, Heartless
I swore on my knees at the altar where you held me that I would kill you. It was an oath you made me make in my own blood. And now I have returned to give you the promised blade.
— T. Mountebank, Sister Sable
The best revenge is living well.
— Jerry Seinfeld
Revenge is Always Sweet, it's the Aftertaste that's Bitter.
— Joshua Caleb
Revenge is like politics, one thing always leads to another until bad has become worse, and worse has become worst.
— Jonas Jonasson, The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared
I joined the army to avenge the deaths of my family and to survive, but I've come to learn that if I am going to take revenge, in that process I will kill another person whose family will want revenge; then revenge and revenge and revenge will never come to an end...
— Ishmael Beah, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
Hey, times are tough, and thirty gold coins can do a lot of good. But I guess you wouldn't know about needing money, since you grew up like a little princ..."(Rapunzel glares)"Prin... soner. I mean, prisoner! A prisoner in a tower, such a shame, that.
— Shannon Hale
What's the big idea?" Sabrina demanded. "I declared war on you, remember?" Puck said. Sabrina rolled her eyes. "Is this another one of your stupid pranks?" Puck sniffed. "You have contaminated me with your puberty virus and you called my villainy into question." "First of all, puberty isn't a virus," Sabrina said as she fought a tug of was with the Pegasus for her now rather damp pillow."Secondly, I'm sorry if I gave you the itty-bitty baby and boo-boo face. Do you wasnt me to give you a hug?" Puck curled his lip in anger. "Oh, now is the baby cranky. Perhaps we should put him down for a nap?" "We'll see who's laughing soon enough," Puck said. "You see these flying horses?" "Duh!" "These horses have a very special diet," Puck said. "For the last two days they have eaten nothing but chili dogs and prune juice." Sabrina heard a rumble coming from Puck's horse. It was so loud it drowned out the sound of its beating wings. Sabrina couldn't tell if the churn of the sound was worse for the Pegasus but it whined a bit and its eyes bulged nervously. Puck continued. "Now, chili dogs and prune juice are a hard combination on a person's belly. It can keep a human being on the toilet for a week. Imagine what would happen if I fed chili dogs and prune juice to an eight-hundred-and-fifty-pound flying horse. Oh, wait a minute! You don't have to imagine it. I did feed chili dogs and prune juice to an eight-hundred-and-fifty-pound flying horse. In fact, I fed them all the same thing!
— Michael Buckley, The Everafter War
There were many, many debts to be paid before she left Rifthold and took back her throne. Starting now. Fortunate that she was in a killing sort of mood.
— Sarah J. Maas, Queen of Shadows
She has her helmet, shield and sword. Does she finish him or take pity on the gutless thing before her?Does she set fire and smoke him out, forcing him to fight, or does she let him live with himself and take satisfaction from knowing that he has never been in a real fight in his life and that one day he will have to face his demons in person, along with the consequences, and that both can be far more painful than anything she could ever do to him.
— Donna Lynn Hope
But I won't bore you any longer on the subject of old men. It won't make things any better and all my plans of revenge (such as disconnecting the lamp, shutting the door, hiding his clothes) must be abandoned in order to keep the peace. Oh, I'm becoming so sensible! ...
— Anne Frank
If we choose to, we can live in a world of comforting illusions. We can allow ourselves to be deceived by false realities. Or we can use them to hide our true intentions.
— Emily Thorne
Revenge is never the answer
— Kasie West, The Fill-In Boyfriend
Revenge is an infection of the spirit.
— Jonathan Maberry, Rot & Ruin
The passion for revenge should never blind you to the pragmatics of the situation. There are some people who are so blighted by their past, so warped by experience and the pull of that silken cord, that they never free themselves of the shadows that live in the time machine...And if there is a kind thought due them, it may be found contained in the words of the late Gerald Kersh, who wrote:"... there are men whom one hates until a certain moment when one sees, through a chink in their armour, the writhing of something nailed down and in torment.
— Harlan Ellison, The Essential Ellison: A 50 Year Retrospective
I will see you bereft of all that you have, of home and happiness and beautiful things. I will see your nation cast down and your allies drawn away. I will see you as alone and friendless and wretched as am I; and then you may live as long as you like, in some dark and lonely corner of the earth, and I shall call myself content. -Lien, Albino Celestial (Dragon) 
— Naomi Novik, Black Powder War
She'd said that revenge was not sweet, that it was bloody. She was wrong. It *was* sweet. For one fleeting, glorious moment you felt incredible satisfaction. Then it was gone, empty, and you had to go on living. The power high that filled me with her light had faded, and all I tasted now were bitter ashes.
— Sunny, Mona Lisa Blossoming
...it is by our actions that we are destroyed or saved. The choice is ours.
— Sherrilyn Kenyon, The Dream Hunter
Funny thing about revenge. It could make a killer out of a nun.
— Kevis Hendrickson
My father's answer was revenge-has always been revenge-and the outcome was just, but not better. Nothing is fixed.
— Brenna Yovanoff, The Space Between
His jest shall savour but a shallow wit, when thousands more weep than did laugh it.
— William Shakespeare, Henry V
He had the hypocrisy to represent a mourner: and previous to following with Hareton, he lifted the unfortunate child on to the table and muttered, with peculiar gusto, 'Now, my bonny lad, you are mine! And we'll see if one tree won't grow as crooked as another, with the same wind to twist it!
— Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
... Life can be savored only if you look to the future and leave vengeance to the gods
— David Gemmell, Fall of Kings
I won't argue with you, but still it's secretly turning me into a hateful person. I figure that the best revenge, though, is to leave people to their own devices, and they will make their own lives hell.
— Dee Dee Ramone
They all laughed when I said I'd become a comedian. Well, they're not laughing now.
— Bob Monkhouse, Crying With Laughter: My Life Story
Every blade has two edges
—  he who wounds with one wounds himself with the other.
Revenge is self-defeating. It will eat away you until there is nothing left.
— Chris Bradford, The Way of the Warrior
I want revenge, but I don't want to screw up my karma.
— Susane Colasanti, Take Me There
Revenge in the hands of your enemies is a loaded gun. You can beg them for mercy, wave the white flag of surrender, but the only true elixir for the vitriol they bestow is a measure of hatred dispensed of your own.
— Addison Moore, Wicked
For some offenses, there is only retribution." Nora Hawks, "One Woman's Vengeance.
— Dennis R. Miller
How very kind of her, ' I said. 'I must remember to send her a card.'I'd send her a card alright. It would be the Ace of Spades, and I'd mail it anonymously from somewhere other than Bishop's Lacey.
— Alan Bradley, A Red Herring Without Mustard
For the taking of revenge, a man locks himself up alone and thinks. His stomach must be empty for his head to be full. Vengeance comes a little from the heart and a lot from the mind; one must take oneself apart from the noise of men and of things, even from what resembles them; only the voices of bells and of thunder are allowed. Let the room in which you meditate be dark, narrow and warm.
— Xavier Forneret
Revenge writing is a female genre. Men who have been left by women or made cuckolds by rivals either lick their wounds in humiliated silence or start the Trojan Wars. Having no other power or public voice, the betrayed woman reaches for her pen.
— Frances Wilson, The Courtesan’s Revenge
Perish the universe, provided I have my revenge!
— Cyrano de Bergerac
If you have to injure someone, then make it so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.
— Michael Scott
Revenge is a dish best eaten cold and there is no sweeter dish than outliving an enemy
— Don Darkes, 6692 Pisces the Sailfish
Oh, I didn't think it wise to hide it. Might not be able to find it again," I say, cheerily. "It's sitting in plain view on your chair in the great hall. I do hope that was the best place for it.
— Libba Bray, A Great and Terrible Beauty
I've decided that I'm going to collect as many spiders in a jar as I can and then pour them all over you, William Flecter. Seeing as how it's good to face your fears.
— Sharon Biggs Waller, A Mad, Wicked Folly
Abbey," Sarah said, "life is to be lived. If you're living, you're going to stumble along the way.""All the time?" Abigail lept to her feet and began to pace. "I have such a bad temper and when I was in my teens, I wasn't above using my gift for revenge. None of you did that."Joley slowly raised her hand, sliding down in the chair as she did so. Hannah followed suit, though she didn't look in the least remorseful. Sarah shrugged her shoulders and raised her hand and glared at Elle, who just grinned sheepishly and put up a couple of fingers. Carol tossed her head and waved her arm with gusto.
— Christine Feehan, Oceans of Fire
When the ships had lifted, they returned across the river to the silence of death. Then his grandfather told him, "Many fine things your father had planned for you: learning and useful work and a life of satisfaction and peace. Do you recall this?""Yes, Grandfather.""The learning you shall have. You will learn patience and resource, the ability of your hands and your mind. You will have useful work: the destruction of evil men. What work could be more useful? This is Beyond; you will find that your work is never done—so therefore you may never know life of peace. However, I guarantee you ample satisfaction, for I will teach you to crave the blood of these men more than the flesh of woman."The old man had been as good as his word.
— Jack Vance, The Demon Princes, Volume One: The Star King, The Killing Machine, The Palace of Love
Revenge is not always sweet, once it is consummated we feel inferior to our victim.
— Emil M. Cioran
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, Chinese Cinderella and the Secret Dragon Society
Revenge is what I want. Nothing but pure unadulterated revenge. But my mother brought me up to be a lady.
— J.P. Donleavy, The Lady Who Liked Clean Restrooms: The Chronicle Of One Of The Strangest Stories Ever To Be Rumoured About Around New York
You can be the hunter, or you can be the hunted.
— Lisa Gardner, The Neighbor
Revenge has it's own special taste
— Anonymous
Time and Nemesis will do that which I would not, were it in my power remote or immediate. You will smile at this piece of prophecy - do so, but recollect it: it is justified by all human experience. No one was ever even the involuntary cause of great evils to others, without a requital: I have paid and am paying for mine - so will you.
— George Gordon Byron, Lord Byron: Selected Letters and Journals,
That little girl was dead and in her place stood a cold-blooded killer.
— Reyna Pryde, Unique: A New Breed
Oh, so seldom does fate cast our enemy into our hands, to do with as we will
— Donna Leon, Acqua Alta
I do not believe that I am a vindictive man, but when the immortal gods take a hand in the matter it is pardonable to observe the results with complacency.
— W. Somerset Maugham, Collected Short Stories: Volume 1
It is well if you go in for revenge to make it as complete as possible.("The Vengeance Of The Dead")
— Robert Barr, Gaslit Nightmares: Stories by Robert W. Chambers, Charles Dickens, Richard Marsh, and Others
To hell, allegiance! Vows, to the blackest devil!Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit!I dare damnation
— William Shakespeare
Vendetta is the word, except it isn't strong enough.
— Sister Souljah, The Coldest Winter Ever
Placing blame was easier than adding up the mounting figures of what he'd lost.
— Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones
Revenge,' he said, 'is a human invention. It serves no purpose.
— John Ajvide Lindqvist, Låt de gamla drömmarna dö
Six months ago when she first came up with the idea to kill Wilson, back when she was living in Memphis, she'd started going to church again. Since she was spending so much time thinking about sinister things, the least she could do, she reasoned, was to think about God and his love twice a week at church so that she wouldn't become a total sociopath. And rather than kill other people who were stand-ins for the person she really wanted to kill, like serial killers did, she'd be kind and generous to others and hone in on the one who deserved to die. And her plan had worked extremely well. Since she'd started planning to kill Wilson, and then decided to destroy his family instead, she felt no animosity toward anyone but him. Almost none at all!
— Elizabeth Stuckey-French, The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady
For the longest time I studied revenge to the exclusion of all else. I built my first torture chamber in the dark vaults of imagination. Lying on bloody sheets in the Healing Hall I discovered doors within my mind that I’d not found before, doors that even a child of nine knows should not be opened. Doors that never close again. I threw them wide.
— Mark  Lawrence
The black widow, who had dispatched a lover or two, was sought out for her wisdom. The young spider asked her, "Did you keep his harmful secret under the threat of danger, or did you spin a web so confusing that he didn't know if you were friend or foe? Did you release him from the web and your presence or will you give another the venom in which to finish him?" The black widow was quiet and then said, "All of the above.
— Donna Lynn Hope
I'd be glad of a retaliation that wouldn't recoil on myself; but treachery and violence are spears pointed at both ends: they wound those who resort to them, worse than their enemies.
— Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
At this hourLie at my mercy all mine enemies.
— William Shakespeare, The Tempest
There is some comfort in killing that which has hurt you, but it is cold comfort. It'll destroy things inside of you that the original pain wouldn't have harmed. Sometimes it's not a question of whether a piece of your soul is going to go missing, only which piece it's going to be.
— Laurell K. Hamilton, Obsidian Butterfly
No. I didn't say you could talk yet.You made me feel like crap. I didn't fit into your little definition of perfect and you never let me forget it. I can assure you there is nothing. Nothing that would ever make you worth the air you breathe.
— Nyrae Dawn, Measuring Up
Someone once said that nothing costs more and yields less benefit than revenge,” Aomame said.“Winston Churchill. As I recall it, though, he was making excuses for the British Empire’s budget deficits. It has no moral significance.
— Haruki Murakami, 1Q84 BOOK 2
Spending plenty of time on something can be the most sophisticated form of revenge.
— Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
My reign is not yet over... you live, and my power is complete. Follow me; I seek the everlasting ices of the north, where you will feel the misery of cold and frost to which I am impassive. You will find near this place, if you follow not too tardily, a dead hare; eat and be refreshed. Come on, my enemy; we have yet to wrestle for our lives; but many hard and miserable hours must you endure until that period shall arrive.
— Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein
If you seek revenge, it means you're scared or you feel guilty for what happened in some way. It's okay to be angry with someone, but don't think about revenge. It's like a disease that eats you up.
— David Miller
You do not know me for sure, yet you feel yourself better than me.But if you ever deliberately provoke me, in a way trying to hurt me, I'm so worried that you will die, or injured with heart full of revenge.The kind of revenge which you will never be able to fully retaliate, a revenge that will only add to next innocent victims..in between you and me.
— Toba Beta, My Ancestor Was an Ancient Astronaut
Shamefully, all of us have wanted revenge on someone at some point for something. I've lived since before man and buffalo roamed this small planet. I have survived the beginning, bloom, and death of countless enemies, civilizations, and people. And the one truth I have learned most during all of these centuries is the old Japanese proverb. If you sit by the river long enough, you will see the body of your enemy float by.
— Sherrilyn Kenyon, Retribution
The only way to gall and fret effectively is for yourself to be a good and honest man.
— Diogenes of Sinope
If you want a revenge, don't hold it. It poisons you.Either you just let the grudge go, or make him chary.
— Toba Beta, My Ancestor Was an Ancient Astronaut
One thing at a time,' said the Boy. 'You must be patient. This is a day of hope and wild revenge. Do not interrupt me. I am a courier from another world. I bring you golden words.Listen!' said the Boy. 'Where I come from there is no more fear. But there is a roaring and a bellowing and a cracking of bones. And sometimes there is silence when, lolling on your thrones, your slaves adore you.
— Mervyn Peake, Boy in Darkness and Other Stories
I wanted it more than enough. I wanted it with every fiber of my being, and I had the power to make it happen - to make it so I was the one Drew wanted, not Lizzie
— Michelle Madow, Vengeance
Then haste we down to meet thy friends and foes;To place thy friends in ease, the rest in woes.For here though death doth end their misery,I'll there begin their endless tragedy.
— Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy
One day, after practice, he came up behind me, tapped me on the shoulder, and as I turned around, he sucker-punched me and relocated my nose to the other side of my face. What up, Mr. Drum Captain? How's your drumming going, bro? Played any arenas lately?
— Tommy Lee, Tommyland
The necklace, Marcos,” she said firmly, leveling the gun at his heart once more. “I’ll take it now.” “It’s not here, querida. You waste your time.”Francesca lowered the gun to point at his groin. “Killing you would be too good. Perhaps I will simply have to deprive the female world of your ability to make love ever again. I am quite a good shot, I assure you.” She’d learned out of necessity. And though she never wanted to harm another human being, she had no compunction about making this man think she would do so if it meant she could save Jacques.His voice dropped to a growl. A hateful, angry growl. “You won’t get away with this. Whoever you are, Frankie, I will find you. I will find you and make you wish you’d never met me.”Her heart flipped in her chest. She ignored it. “I already wish that. Now give me the jewel before you lose the ability to ever have children.”Bitterness twisted inside her as she said those words. Ironic to threaten someone with something she would never wish on another soul. But she had to be hard, cold, ruthless – just like he was.He stared at her in impotent fury, his jaw grinding, his beautiful black eyes flashing daggers at her. Very slowly, he reached up with one hand and slipped his bowtie free of its knot. Then he jerked it loose and let it fall.
— Lynn Raye Harris, The Devil's Heart
Time collapsed into a delicate dark pencil brushed against oureyebrows, the emergent rumble of crowds gathering above our heads. Weslid into our costumes. Pirate, outlaw, futuristic rebels. Red,purple, gold. Chains hanging from our belts, tight black trousers. Wewere moved upstairs, closer to the stage. Finally, we heard thecannon's roar: Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome... Tanzarrecording artists... THE MASTER PLANETS!" The world shot forward. Westepped into the spotlight.
— Donald Gallinger
You haven’t got a clue, Devon,” Akira spat out. “I would have chosen any life other than the one I have. I envy your naïveté. Your belief in the possibility of love. I know you don’t understand any of this or who I am, but I was like you at one time. I only wanted to see the best in people. To believe this world was filled with hope and kindness.” Her bitterness was apparent. “I thought compassion came with understanding…with seeing inside a person’s heart and knowing their true mind. But I was wrong. Nothing in this world is what it seems.
— Kaylin McFarren, Twisted Threads
Vae Victus -- suffering to the conquered. Ironic that now I was the one suffering. Not anything as pedestrian as physical pain. Rather the cruel jab of impotent anger -- the hunger for revenge. I didn't care if I was in Heaven or Hell -- all I wanted was to kill my assassins. Sometimes you get what you wish for. The Necromancer Mortanius offered me a chance for vengeance. And like a fool, I jumped at his offer without considering the cost. Nothing is free, not even revenge.
— Denis Dyack
Lord of the Muck.
— Ottilie Weber, Family Ties
Secundus might lie rotting in his grave, but his relatives and followers yet lived. They believed the lies that held Gwenwhyfar responsible for the death of their relative. For the sake of his own family’s safety, Marcus had not sought to correct that error.
— Jennifer McKeithen, Atlantis On the Shores of Forever
I often had thoughts of vengeance, but I never felt they consumed me. In the days after our conversation, I thought about what Lee had said about Lydia’s killer having a new beginning in a different life. I didn’t want it to get in the way of justice, but didn’t everyone deserve a chance to begin again and become a better person? I think Lee knew he could reach my spirit of fairness, and as a human being –or near enough to one, it seemed unfathomable that someone should be made to pay for their past-life transgressions in a future life. I suppose that’s what karma was, in a way, just very different from an avenging fae. It didn’t mean I wouldn’t punish him, of course, if I had the chance.
— Cailee Francis, A Cascade of Moments
Why do I get the feeling that to say "fancy meeting you here" would hardly be apt? Sharks can smell blood from miles away, I hear.
— Amanda Browning, Savage Destiny
I see a lot of people talking about karma almost as if it is a form of revenge. When you get into that revenge-seeking mindset of those who have harmed me will pay for it in the future, we begin to attract negative karma to ourselves. We should be focusing on the positive effects that our positive actions have on our life. When you think with anger and revenge, you lose your abilities of forgiveness, compassion, and love for the people around you.
— Avina Celeste
I don't seek revenge because the karma bus always arrives on time.
— Fuad Alakbarov
Was he seeking shelter from death? Malcolm could not have that.
— Mike Miracle, The Next
Suddenly revenge is so close he can actually taste it. It tastes like steak, rare.
— Margaret Atwood, Hag-Seed
The bigger the person, the more their actions affect the world. If they live, perhaps they will learn that""And if everyone dies, no one learns anything
— Liz Braswell, As Old as Time
Yes,” said Talon, his voice the hiss of a coiled serpent.
— Raymond E. Feist, Talon of the Silver Hawk
-"-A book takes me a year to write. It's too hard work for a revenge."-"If you knew how little you had to revenge...".
— Graham Greene, The End of the Affair
Hot from hell. Caesar's spirit raging in revenge. Cry,havoc! And let slip the dogs of war.
— William Shakespeare
YOUNG MORTIMER:Thou proud disturber of thy country's peace,Corrupter of thy king, cause of these broils,Base flatterer, yield! and were it not for shame,Shame and dishonour to a soldier's name,Upon my weapon's point here should'st thou fall,And welter in thy gore.LANCASTER:Monster of men!That, like the Greekish strumpet, train'd to armsAnd bloody wars so many valiant knights;Look for no other fortune, wretch, than death!King Edward is not here to buckler thee.
— Christopher Marlowe, Edward II
Perhaps only that revenge is ultimately unsatisfying," Snow said. "It can make up for evil done to you, but can destroy the remaining good in your life.
— Bill Willingham, Fables
Killing someone is different in practice than it is in theory. There are factors you can’t prepare for, feelings in the moment where you’ll question everything you thought you knew about yourself, other feelings that might follow you long after the deed is done.
— Paula Stokes, Ferocious
My name is Winter Kim. Today I killed a man. Soon I hope to kill another.
— Paula Stokes, Ferocious
Never do an enemy a small injury.
— Niccolò Machiavelli
However miserable you make us, we shall still have the revenge of thinking that your cruelty arises from your greater misery.
— Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
I rode up, walked past a few miles of wallpaper that was someone's revenge for life's disappointments.
— Keith Laumer, A Plague of Demons & Other Stories
It can happen sometimes, with those who brood on an injustice, that a taste for revenge can usefully combine with a sense of obligation.
— Ian McEwan, Amsterdam
The relief of opening one's hand and letting go was immense. But soon after, I tightened again. A desire for revenge, a strange revenge.
— Anaïs Nin, Henry and June: From "A Journal of Love"--The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin
Revenge is sweet but not nourishing.
— Mason Cooley
If you're gonna shoot an elephant Mr. Schneider, you better be prepared to finish the job.
— Gary Larson, The Far Side
Slaughter personified to him every evil of this war. It would never end for Tom until he had dealt with Slaughter. His chance had been delayed last night. The next time he encountered the Colonel, he’d kill him.
— C.G. Faulkner, Unreconstructed
I'll find a day to massacre them allAnd raze their faction and their family,The cruel father and his traitorous sons,To whom I sued for my dear son's life,And make them know what 'tis to let a queenKneel in the streets and beg for grace in vain.
— William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus
Is this what she would have wanted, Hawke?" Ronan asked quietly. "Justice at the cost of an innocent man and his child?
— Sloane Kennedy, Retribution
Abruptly, Adrik snarled, 'I'm glad Sergei's dead. I'm just sorry I didn't get to wring his neck myself.''You'd need two hands for that,' said
— Leigh Bardugo, Ruin and Rising
Be ready to defend yourself as I'm coming out of the shelf
— Aireen Pontillo
If, one day, you find yourself involved in a dirty game, keep in mind that you end up screwed unless you screw your opponent over.
— Gina Wings, Secrets of a Perfect Hair Color: Adventures of an Urban Woman
And if revenge was all I had, then I was goddamned if it wouldn’t be enough.
— J.D.  Jordan, Calamity: Being an Account of Calamity Jane and Her Gunslinging Green Man
Your malice and your striving to seek revenge are much more harmful to your health than they are to your antagonist.
— Aaidh ibn Abdullah al-Qarni, Don't Be Sad
My only desire in the world is to have my revenge against everyone who hurt me, disbelieved me, and made me into the bad guy. After that, I don’t know... But, right now, nothing in the world matters but my payback. And I’m going to love every sick, twisted minute of it.
— Jaimie Roberts, Siren
Zahra, what happens to you when I make my last wish?”“When your third wish is granted, you will cease to be my master. You may possess the lamp, but you cannot call me. I will return to it and await the next Lampholder.”Abruptly he stands and walks across the room. When he reaches the wall, he turns and stares down at me. “So to win my revenge, I must lose you.
— Jessica Khoury, The Forbidden Wish
You only take revenge upon your own body of soul.Religious Leader Petra Cecilia Maria HermansReligion Of Blue CircleOctober 30, 2016Babaji
— Petra Hermans
If Recsk had taught him anything, it was that for those intent on killing, life was the ultimate revenge.
— Doris Mortman, The Wild Rose
Hatred bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
— Amanda Craig, A Vicious Circle
revenge was never my intention.-but it still tastes sweeter than honey
— Amanda Lovelace, The Princess Saves Herself in this One
Payback is a bitch, and the bitch is back.
— Stephen King, End of Watch
Revenge may be exacted a hundred times over in one sleepless night. The impulse, the dreaming intention, is human, normal, and we should forgive ourselves. But the raised hand, the actual violent enactment, is cursed. The maths says so. There’ll be no reversion to the status quo ante, no balm, no sweet relief, or none that lasts. Only a second crime. Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves, Confucius said. Revenge unstitches a civilisation. It’s a reversion to constant, visceral fear.
— Ian McEwan, Nutshell
Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves, Confucius said. Revenge unstitches civilisation.
— Ian McEwan, Nutshell
Everything that glitters ain't gold.
— NyRee Ausler, RETRIBUTION - What Goes Around...
He who plots revenge must dig two graves.
— Lois McMaster Bujold, The Vor Game
Remember these Romans, Hannibal. For the time being, we must ally with them. But the day will come when we will have our vengeance upon them, as we will upon the demons of Harappa. Never forget that.”The boy's voice was grave. “I'll remember.
— Jennifer McKeithen, Atlantis On the Tides of Destiny
Being happy is the best revenge.
— Tiffany Reisz, The Bourbon Thief
Revenge loses sight of the end in the means, but it's end is not wholly bad - it wants the evil of the bad man to be to him what it is to everyone else. This is proved by the fact that the avenger wants the guilty party not merely to suffer, but to suffer at his hands, and to know it, and to know why. Hence the impulse to taunt the guilty man with his crime at the moment of taking vengeance: hence, too, such natural expressions as 'I wonder how he'd like it if the same thing were done to him' or 'I'll teach him'. For the same reason when we are going to abuse a man in words we say we are going to 'let him know what we think of him'.
— C.S. Lewis
Revenge is really a perverse form of communication, a twisted attempt at repair.
— Terrence Real, How Can I Get Through to You? Closing the Intimacy Gap Between Men and Women
What is your itinerary?""To meet my maker.""Ah. Well. You're in luck. And what do you want to say to your maker?""A most mechanical and dirty hand [laughs]. I shall have such revenges on you...both. The things I will do, what they are, yet I know not. But they will be the terrors of the earth. You don't know where you are, do you? You're in a prison of your own sins.
— Michael Crichton, Westworld
Man against man can only take revenge but cannot punish
— Santosh Avvannavar, Umbilical Cord: A cord that remains, always, in many ways...
I’m dancing on land mines across your chest.Hoping high hopes I’ll trigger some
— Renee Ruin, Wounds: Volume 1
What do you want from me? Revenge? Sorry—we're all out of revenge today!
— Clifford Odets, Golden Boy
Thou calledst me a dog before thou hadst a cause,But since I am a dog, beware my fangs.
— William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice
The person who offends, and the person who has been offended and awaiting for a revenge have one thing in common: the real uncertainties of tomorrow is truly uncertain to both of them.
— Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
Don't be trying to give back pain for pain...You can't get even measures in business like this.
— Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove
Samurai are born to die.Death is not a curse to be avoided -- but the natural end of all life. Death is not eternal . . . dishonor is.
— Rick Remender, Tokyo Ghost, Vol. 1: Atomic Garden
His guilt swelled up, churning like a paddle wheel in his stomach. He wanted desperately to flee. How do you escape something that comes from inside? The revenant, he knew, searched for him.
— Michael Punke, The Revenant
Anger can be used for destruction and construction, It will be your decision that how you will use it.
— Jignesh Ahir, Rudra - Ek Nava Yug Ni Sharuaat
Names didn't matter; names were for toe tags and arrest warrants, not for revenge.
— Chris Leek, Smoke 'Em if You Got 'Em
The other good thing was that I had enough rank to strong-arm Marjit into confessing that she'd been the one who'd told everything to Pa about my first invisibility cap, which was how Pa knew to come steal it. Unfortunately, since my rank in the surface world hung off Pa's, I did NOT have enough rank to take him to task for stealing my cap. So I just put him to sleep during a fancy dinner, so that he went facedown into the sour soup. Just the once. It eased my ire terrifically.
— Merrie Haskell, The Princess Curse
No matter what side of the law you are on, when it comes to revenge, there is no mercy.
— R.J. Torbert, No Mercy
I hammered on the Poes' front door like Alaric on the gates of Rome. Poe said that a gaudy figure of speech was a silk cravat around a dirty neck. He didn't say whether the truth lay in the plain thing or in its fancy.
— Norman Lock, The Port-Wine Stain
Keep your friends close, and your bunny friends closer.
— Lawrenz Mejia
Those who hurt, Screw up, if you are lucky Demons will let you watch.
— Tushar Saxena
Flies are the dead man's revenge.
— George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords
I have earned my revenge on everyone who hurt me. My father, who tortured me every day - I crushed his chest and his heart. Teren, sick and twisted and mad - I took away his beloved just as he took away mine. Raffaele, who betrayed and manipulated me - I seized control of the prince he loves, and I made sure he watched his prince destroy in my name. And Violetta, darling, dearest sister who turned her back when I needed her the most. I cast her out. I finally said everything to her that I wanted to say. I have hurt back.
— Marie Lu, The Rose Society
It wasn’t desire, it was biology. My body was adapting to the situation. Doing what it needed to survive. That, I was certain of. Because if I had liked it, liked the hands of this monster, that would have made me a monster too.
— A. Zavarelli, Echo
She was the only antidote for the bleakness that lived inside of me. My goddess. My deity. I wasn’t a believer in any religion, but I’d make an exception in this case. I’d get down on my knees and worship at her alter every day if it brought her back to me.
— A. Zavarelli, Stutter
Even when she was on her knees- filled with my darkness- she was still shining bright. My Siren’s song, my exposed nerve. She lured me in and made me feel. And then she left me to perish.
— A. Zavarelli, Stutter
I needed to channel the darkness that ran through my veins and embrace it. To play this game better than this man ever could have predicted. After all, I’d only been with him twice, and already I could see his weakness. His weakness was me.
— A. Zavarelli, Echo
I didn’t know what to say. What to do. I didn’t feel strong anymore. I felt like I couldn’t go on without him. He loved me fiercely. Obsessively. Rivalled only by the intensity which I felt for him. So why couldn’t we be together?
— A. Zavarelli, Stutter
It was Brighton. She made me fucking insane. Her beauty and absolute perfection dissolved any moral boundaries that may have existed within me.
— A. Zavarelli, Stutter
Don’t deny me what’s mine, Brighton.
— A. Zavarelli, Stutter
I’m not letting you go, baby girl. You need to accept that.
— A. Zavarelli, Stutter
Know what’s worse than cold turkey? Just a little bump. One tiny sip to take the edge off. The edges never went away, they only got sharper. Every addict would tell you. Gray areas couldn’t exist in a sober environment.
— A. Zavarelli, Stutter
I’d single-handedly go to war and burn their whole organization to the ground before I ever let them harm what was mine. And there were no two ways about it- Brighton would always be mine.
— A. Zavarelli, Stutter
That's when I learned the hardest truth about vengeance: it had no logical end, served no real purpose, except perhaps to delay grief.
— Peter Orullian, Unfettered
By Hecate, the goddess I worship more than all the others, the one I choose to help me in this work, who lives with me deep inside my home, these people won't bring pain into my heart and laugh about it.
— Euripides
At the same time, the thought of Gisela suffering at Ruexner's hands sent ice water through his veins, along with a stab of guilt. If Gisela should suffer pain or distress at Ruexner's hands, it would be his fault. Ruexner had only taken her because of his hatred for Valten. " God, I must save her. I must not fail.
— Melanie Dickerson, The Captive Maiden
revenge is only sweet to those whom rancor have distorted their taste.
— Jaime Tenorio Valenzuela
What life she had left could be measured in hours. Small recompense though they were, they belonged to me now. I had only to claim them.
— Kim van Alkemade, Orphan Number Eight
Vengeance is a way of clinging to what we have lost. A wedge in the Last Door, and through the crack we can still glimpse the faces of the dead. We strain towards it with all our being, break every rule to have it, but when we clutch it, there is nothing there. Only grief.
— Joe Abercrombie, Half a War
You can be justified in attacking someone, physically or verbally, but the satisfaction it brings is limited; it often leaves you with a bad feeling in the long run and gets you more involved with someone you'd like to stay away from.
— Michael I. Bennett, MD
One other question. Would it be acceptable to destroy a universe in the name of a greater love?” The waiter laughs. “Are you God or just gay?" “Neither, but thank you for your answer.
— Paulo Coelho, The Winner Stands Alone
Jealousy is only hurt ego. Revenge is meaningless. Life is abstract. There is no point other than pleasure.
— Chloe Thurlow, Katie in Love
They say when you take revenge against another you lose your innocence.
— E.K. Blair, Bang
It's funny, most people think that revenge is a passionate affair, driven by rage and pain. But it can't be. Feelings such as those make you weak. They overwrite thought and cause reckless impulses that lead to poor decisions.
— Carrie Ryan, Daughter of Deep Silence
She took a life because someonehumiliated her, hurt her image of herself as the Valkyrie, thestainless warrior. Exposed her weakness, which was only love. So sheavenged herself. So easy to justify, I wrote to her. It's because youfelt like a victim you did it. If you were really strong, you couldhave tolerated the humiliation.
— Janet Fitch, White Oleander
Desperate times call for slutty measures.
— Elizabeth  Good, Trampled Underfoot: The Dirt on Vic and Lia
I shouldn't have taken a vow of silence, I told myself. What did I want? Nothing much. Just a memorial. But what is a memorial, when you come right down to it, but a commemoration of wounds endured? Endured, and resented. Without memory, there can be no revenge.
— Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin
You know why I really hated you? With all that you had you were just so oblivious to it all. You didn't use your beauty. You didn't ever try to get what you wanted. You didn't deserve what you had. I did because I would have used it. And you just...loved me. Loved me no matter what I did. You have no idea how I despised you for that. I wanted you gone."'The Yielding
— J.A. Ironside, A Chimerical World: Tales of the Unseelie Court
The tyrant grinds down his slaves and they don't turn against him, they crush those beneath them.
— Emily Brontë
Revenge is not redress. Revenge is a wheel, and it turns backwards.
— Terry Pratchett
The dead," she said. "And we have plenty of dead between us, but the way we act, you'd think they were corpses handing on to our ankles, rather than souls freed to the elements." ... "they're gone, they can't be hurt anymore, but we drag their memory around with us, doing our worst in their name, like it's what they'd want, for us to avenge them?
— Laini Taylor, Dreams of Gods & Monsters
It's death and destruction I want to bring down upon House Lannister, not scorn. Jon said.
— George R.R. Martin, A Dance with Dragons
I also knew that the deep rumble rolling through us was only nerves, a sensitivity to imagined repercussion, as if a sound were built into revenge.
— Nathan Englander
Revenge never ends until everything and everyone around it is destroyed. A vengeful heart never rests.
— Jason Lloyd, The Garden of Fibs and Sin
When it was too late for rescue, it was still early enough for revenge.
— Kazuo Ishiguro, The Buried Giant
I admired so many things about you. Almost everything. But I don’t want to wind up like you. I don’t want to starve to death, all alone on some island inside my own head. Hopeless.
— Jenna Brooks, October Snow
Burn them all, little dragon.
— Rhiannon Thomas, A Wicked Thing
No, this is my revenge. I am giving you just what you want, I'm releasing you. And yet I''m really not. I'll inflict torments on you, subtle torments, day after day, year after year- that's why you're necessary to me.
— Buddhadeva Bose, It Rained All Night
If I had allowed myself to dwell on revenge, it would turn to bitterness, and bitterness is the worst poison a man can give himself.
— Sarah Holman, Brothers and Betrayal
What thief does not fight to hold what he has?""One that has something better" - Locke Lamora to the Gray king
— Scott Lynch, The Lies of Locke Lamora
We're fighting for unhappiness?" Noah asked skeptically. "It sounds a bit crazy when you put it that way."Nijinsky laughed, delighted. "Oh, it is." Then, serious again, he said, "We fight for the right to be what we choose,to feel what we choose. Even if what we choose seems crazy to others.""If it's all the same to you, I'll fight for revenge," Sadie said.Nijinsky's eyes glittered. "Oh, yes. That's fine with me.
— Michael  Grant, BZRK
Revenge can only be found on the road to self-destruction.
— Wayne Gerard Trotman, Kaya Abaniah and the Father of the Forest
Vengeance is pointless, but certain men do not have a place in the world we sought to construct
— Simone de Beauvoir
Vengeance is pointless, but certain men did not have a place in the world we sought to construct
— Simone de Beauvoir
He was almost at his door when Vik’s earsplitting shriek resounded down the corridor. Tom was glad for the excuse to sprint back toward him. “Vik?”He reached Vik’s doorway as Vik was backing out of it. “Tom,” he breathed, “it’s an abomination.”Confused, Tom stepped past him into the bunk. Then he gawked, too.Instead of a standard trainee bunk of two small beds with drawers underneath them and totally bare walls, Vik’s bunk was virtually covered with images of their friend Wyatt Enslow. There were posters all over the wall with Wyatt’s solemn, oval face on them. She wore her customary scowl, her dark eyes tracking their every move through the bunk. There was a giant marble statue of a sad-looking Vik with a boot on top of its head. The Vik statue clutched two very, very tiny hands together in a gesture of supplication, its eyes trained upward on the unseen stomper, an inscription at its base, WHY, OH WHY, DID I CROSS WYATT ENSLOW?Tom began to laugh.“She didn’t do it to the bunk,” Vik insisted. “She must’ve done something to our processors.”That much was obvious. If Wyatt was good at anything, it was pulling off tricks with the neural processors, which could pretty much be manipulated to show them anything. This was some sort of illusion she was making them see, and Tom heartily approved.He stepped closer to the walls to admire some of the photos pinned there, freeze-frames of some of Vik’s more embarrassing moments at the Spire: that time Vik got a computer virus that convinced him he was a sheep, and he’d crawled around on his hands and knees chewing on plants in the arboretum. Another was Vik gaping in dismay as Wyatt won the war games.“My hands do not look like that.” Vik jabbed a finger at the statue and its abnormally tiny hands. Wyatt had relentlessly mocked Vik for having small, delicate hands ever since Tom had informed her it was the proper way to counter one of Vik’s nicknames for her, “Man Hands.” Vik had mostly abandoned that nickname for “Evil Wench,” and Tom suspected it was due to the delicate-hands gibe.Just then, Vik’s new roommate bustled into the bunk.He was a tall, slim guy with curly black hair and a pointy look to his face. Tom had seen him around, and he called up his profile from memory:NAME: Giuseppe NicholsRANK: USIF, Grade IV Middle, Alexander DivisionORIGIN: New York, NYACHIEVEMENTS: Runner-up, Van Cliburn International Piano CompetitionIP: 2053:db7:lj71::291:ll3:6e8SECURITY STATUS: Top Secret LANDLOCK-4Giuseppe must’ve been able to see the bunk template, too, because he stuttered to a stop, staring up at the statue. “Did you really program a giant statue of yourself into your bunk template? That’s so narcissistic.”Tom smothered his laughter. “Wow. He already has your number, man.”Vik shot him a look of death as Tom backed out of the bunk.
— S.J. Kincaid