Self-Defense & Violence Prevention Blog

A few days ago, I made a post asking readers to suggest ways to dissuade people from their indulging their desire for vengeance. Today I want to post some of the wisest quotes I have come across about vengeance and revenge:

“Revenge has no more quenching effect on emotions than salt water has on thirst.”
~ Walter Weckler

“Revenge is often like biting a dog because the dog bit you.”
~ Austin O’Malley

“Those who plot the destruction of others often perish in the attempt.”
~Thomas Moore

“Vengeance taken will often tear the heart and torment the conscience.”
~ Arthur Schopenhauer

“He who seeks vengeance must dig two graves: one for his enemy and one for himself.”
~ Chinese Proverb

“It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell.”
~ William Tecumseh Sherman

“Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies – or else? The chain reaction of evil – hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars – must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.”
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”
~ Jesus of Nazareth

“Holding onto anger is like grasping onto a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else. You are the one who gets burned.”
~ Gotama Buddha

“You cannot get ahead while you are getting even.”
~ Dick Armey

“In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior.”
~ Francis Bacon

It is “more noble to forgive, and more manly to despise, than to revenge an Injury.”
~ Benjamin Franklin

“Revenge is always the weak pleasure of a little and narrow mind.”
~ Juvenal (Decimus Junius Juvenal)

“Little, vicious minds abound with anger and revenge, and are incapable of feeling the pleasure of forgiving their enemies.”
~ Earl of Chesterfield

“Hatred is the coward’s revenge for being intimidated.”
~ George Bernard Shaw

“An eye for an eye would make the whole world blind.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi

“Revenge is a confession of pain.”
~ Latin Proverb

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

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

“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 Bronte

If you have other similar quotes about vengeance and revenge, please post them! If I made a mistake attributing any of these quotes, please correct me.

What quote in this post is your favorite? Which one do you think is most convincing at dissuading people from indulging in revenge?