Revenge is for suckers. The Sting 1973 starring Paul Newman & Robert Redford & Robert Shaw & Charles Durning & Ray Walston & Eileen Rennan & Harold Gould & John Hefernan & Dana Elcar & James Sloyan & Larry D Mann & Sally Kirkland & Jack Kehoe & Robert Earl James et al, director George Roy Hill Henry to Johnny
Spock: Revenge, Captain?
Kirk: Why not? Star Trek s2e11: Friday’s Child
The time has come for me to take my revenge against the good captain. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine s6e26: Tears of the Prophets ***** Gul Dukat to Weyoun & Damar
One group would seek vengeance on a different scale: they believed that since six million Jews had died in the Holocaust, six million Germans should pay with their lives. Death would be in the drinking water. It would be revenge according to the Old Testament. This is the story of the Jewish Avengers. For the rest of the world the war ended in 1945. But for the Avengers it was just beginning. Nazi Hunters: The Jewish Avengers, 2010
The American press reported 2,300 Nazi victims were in hospital, but again, no deaths. All the Avengers regretted the failure of the Stalag 13 bread poisoning. But what hurt even more was the fact that the first plan – the murder of six million Germans – was never even attempted at the time. ibid.
David Ben-Gurion’s new government was if anything more opposed to revenge than it had ever been. ibid.
Ben-Gurion may have turned his back on Nazi hunting but back in Europe other Jewish avengers decided to keep going. In 1949 Wilhelm Stuckart, a Nazi lawyer who drew up the justification for the Final Solution, died in a mysterious car accident. 1954: Otto Abetz, German ambassador to France during the occupation, was also found dead in a burning vehicle. 1976: SS tank commander Joachim Peiper was tracked to his retirement home in France and killed in a firebomb attack. ibid.
In 1963 David Ben-Gurion stepped down as Israeli prime minister. Now his country’s relaxed policy on revenge was quietly re-written. ibid.
And here we must observe that men must either be flattered or crushed; for they will revenge themselves for slight wrongs, whilst for grave ones they cannot. The injury therefore that you do to a man should be such that you need not fear his revenge. Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince chIII
Democracy is the best revenge. Benazir Bhutto
Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves. Confucius
Revenge is a dish that can be eaten [best served] cold. Late 19th century proverb
Revenge is sweet. Mid-16th century proverb
Forgiveness is the sweetest revenge. Isaac Friedman
Nothing inspires forgiveness quite like revenge. Scott Adams
Life being what it is, one dreams of revenge. Paul Gauguin
Beware of the man who does not return your blow: he neither forgives you nor allows you to forgive yourself. George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman
Revenge, at first though sweet
Bitter ere long back on it self recoiles. John Milton, Paradise Lost IX:171&172
A man that studieth revenge, keeps his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal, and do well. Francis Bacon, ‘Of Revenge, The Essays or Counsels, Civil & Moral’
Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more man’s nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out. ibid.
But what this scene, and much else that I saw in Germany, brought home to me was that the whole idea of revenge and punishment is a childish day-dream. Properly speaking, there is no such thing as revenge. Revenge is an act which you want to commit when you are powerless and because you are powerless: as soon as the sense of impotence is removed, the desire evaporates also. George Orwell, The Politics of Starvation: Revenge is Sour
You can blast my other passions, but revenge remains – revenge, henceforth dearer than light of food! I may die, but first you, my tyrant and tormentor, shall curse the sun that gazes on your misery. Mary Shelley, Frankenstein p153
Indeed, revenge is always the pleasure of a paltry, feeble, tiny mind. Juvenal, A.D. 60-c.130, Roman satirist
Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again. Leviticus 24:20
Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people. Numbers 31:2
Or in enmity smite him with his hand, that he die: he that smote him shall surely be put to death; for he is a murderer: the revenger of blood shall slay the murderer, when he meeteth him. Numbers 35:21
And thine eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. Deuteronomy 19:21
See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.
For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever.
If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me.
I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy.
Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to his people. Deuteronomy 32:39-43
And Samson said unto them, Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.
And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam. Judges 15:7&8
Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were upon the roof about three thousand men and women, that beheld while Samson made sport.
And Samson called unto the Lord, and said, O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.
And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left.
And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life. Judges 16:27-30
And thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy master, that I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the Lord, at the hand of Jezebel. II Kings 9:7
That it might cause fury to come up to take vengeance; I have set her blood upon the top of a rock, that it should not be covered.
Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Woe to the bloody city I will even make the pile for fire great.
Heap on wood, kindle the fire, consume the flesh, and spice it well, and let the bones be burned. Ezekiel 24:8-10
God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth; the Lord revengeth, and is furious; the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.
The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth.
The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein.
Who can stand before his indignation? And who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.