98 Powerful Revenge Quotes

In the realm of human emotions, revenge occupies a unique and often misunderstood space. It's a feeling that can simmer quietly beneath the surface, waiting for the right moment to make its presence known. Whether depicted in literature, movies, or real-life dramas, the desire for vengeance has captured the imagination of people for centuries. This collection of the top 98 powerful revenge quotes delves into the depths of human emotion, offering insight, reflection, and perhaps a touch of inspiration. From the fiery and fervent to the introspective and contemplative, these quotes provide a window into the complex tapestry of feelings that can accompany the desire for retribution. Explore these powerful words and find a resonant echo of your own emotions or simply appreciate the artful expression of a sentiment as old as time itself.

1. “An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.” - Mahatma Gandhi

2. “Until a man is twenty-five, he still thinks, every so often, that under the right circumstances he could be the baddest motherfucker in the world. If I moved to a martial-arts monastery in China and studied real hard for ten years. If my family was wiped out by Colombian drug dealers and I swore myself to revenge. If I got a fatal disease, had one year to live, and devoted it to wiping out street crime. If I just dropped out and devoted my life to being bad.” - Neal Stephenson

3. “I take my only exercise acting as a pallbearer at the funerals of my friends who exercise regularly.” - Mark Twain

4. “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

5. “God is a mean-spirited, pugnacious bully bent on revenge against His children for failing to live up to his impossible standards.” - Walt Whitman

6. “Fool that I am," said he,"that I did not tear out my heart the day I resolved to revenge myself".” - Alexandre Dumas

7. “Humm humm haaa. Rahmumm humm haaaa," intoned Opal, finishing her chant. "Peace be inside me, tolerance all around me, forgiveness in my path. Now, Mervall, show me where the filthy human is so that I may feed him his organs.” - Eoin Colfer

8. “Vengeance and retribution require a long time; it is the rule.” - Charles Dickens

9. “The moment you stop chasing happiness, you become happy.” - Sandy Hyatt-James

10. “Revenge is self-defeating. It will eat away you until there is nothing left.” - Chris Bradford

11. “Don’t worry, I’m not quitting. I’ve decided I’m going to stay andmake his life a living hell while I run his business into the ground.--Kim to Abe” - Devon Rhodes

12. “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

13. “Day after day, day after day,We stuck, nor breath nor motion;As idle as a painted shipUpon a painted ocean.” - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

14. “LET THE FLAMES BEGIN!” - Hayley Williams

15. “If I murmur in the least at affliction, if I am in any way uncharitable, if I revenge my own case, if I do anything purely to please myself or omit anything because it is a great denial, if I trust myself, if I take any praise for any good which Christ does by me, or if I am in any way proud, I shall act as my own and not God’s.” - Jonathan Edwards

16. “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

17. “If anger were mileage, I'd be a very frequent flyer, right up there in First Class.” - Gina Barreca

18. “Briarwood is the pretty poison. There is no cure for Briarwood.” - Anne Bishop

19. “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

20. “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

21. “When you begin a journey of revenge, start by digging two graves: one for your enemy, and one for yourself.” - Jodi Picoult

22. “It is exactly the fear of revenge that motivates the deepest crimes, from the killing of the enemy's children lest they grow up to play their own part, to the erasure of the enemy's graveyards and holy places so that his hated name can be forgotten.” - Christopher Hitchens

23. “And thus to my final and most melancholy point: a great number of Stalin's enforcers and henchmen in Eastern Europe were Jews. And not just a great number, but a great proportion. The proportion was especially high in the secret police and 'security' departments, where no doubt revenge played its own part, as did the ideological attachment to Communism that was so strong among internationally minded Jews at that period: Jews like David Szmulevski. There were reasonably strong indigenous Communist forces in Czechoslovakia and East Germany, but in Hungary and Poland the Communists were a small minority and knew it, were dependent on the Red Army and aware of the fact, and were disproportionately Jewish and widely detested for that reason. Many of the penal labor camps constructed by the Nazis were later used as holding pens for German deportees by the Communists, and some of those who ran these grim places were Jewish. Nobody from Israel or the diaspora who goes to the East of Europe on a family-history fishing-trip should be unaware of the chance that they will find out both much less and much more than the package-tour had promised them. It's easy to say, with Albert Camus, 'neither victims nor executioners.' But real history is more pitiless even than you had been told it was.” - Christopher Hitchens

24. “My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die!” - William Goldman

25. “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

26. “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 Shelley

27. “I only suggest to you: Will you dwell on killing this man? You wish for revenge? If you do, he has already killed you by slow poison. So, let it go. Why waste your time? His life will see to his death.” - Lloyd Alexander

28. “Perish the universe, provided I have my revenge!” - Cyrano de Bergerac

29. “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

30. “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

31. “The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.” - Marcus Aurelius

32. “Granny Weatherwax was often angry. She considered it one of her strong points. Genuine anger was one of the world's greatest creative forces. But you had to learn how to control it. That didn't mean you let it trickle away. It meant you dammed it, carefully, let it develop a working head, let it drown whole valleys of the mind and then, just when the whole structure was about to collapse, opened a tiny pipeline at the base and let the iron-hard stream of wrath power the turbines of revenge.” - Terry Pratchett

33. “Men ought either to be well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot; therefore the injury that is to be done to a man ought to be of such a kind that one does not stand in fear of revenge.” - Niccolo Machiavelli

34. “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

35. “The student of history knows no more refreshing recreation than that of nailing liars, like vermin, to the wall.” - Frederick Rolfe

36. “Lord of the Muck.” - Ottilie Weber

37. “It was time to bring out the world destructive weapons. It was now time to hit him where it would do the biggest damage, his pride.” - Ottilie Weber

38. “...And you, you better run because i'm going to destroy you for what you've taken from me.” - Samantha Young

39. “An eye for an eye is never enough. Never, never, never.” - Adrian Phoenix

40. “Funny thing about revenge. It could make a killer out of a nun.” - Kevis Hendrickson

41. “The person who hurt you--who raped you or killed your family--is also here. If you are still angry at that person, if you haven't been able to forgive, you are chained to him. Everyone could feel the emotional truth of that: When someone offends you and you haven't let go, every time you see him, you grow breathless or your heart skips a beat. If the trauma was really severe, you dream of revenge. Above you, is the Mountain of Peace and Prosperity where we all want to go. But when you try to climb that hill, the person you haven't forgiven weighs you down. It's a personal choice whether or not to let go. No one can tell you how long to mourn a death or rage over a rape. But you can't move forward until you break that chain.” - Leymah Gbowee

42. “There is nothing worse than having an enemy who is a total loser. It's incredibly frustrating when seeking revenge against one, because you come to the realization that there is really nothing you can do to make the person's life worse than it already is. They have nothing to take, there is no way to screw them over if you have been their victim. It's maddening.” - Ashly Lorenzana

43. “Nothing inspires forgiveness quite like revenge.” - Scott Adams

44. “You think I don’t know pain?” Puck shook his head at me. “Or loss? I’ve been around a lot longer than you, prince! I know what love is, and I’ve lostmy fair share, too. Just because we have a different way of handling it, doesn’t mean I don’t have scars of my own.”“Name one,” I scoffed. “Give me one instance where you haven’t—”“Meghan Chase!” Puck roared, startling me into silence. I blinked, and he sneered at me. “Yeah, your highness. I know what loss is. I’ve loved thatgirl since before she knew me. But I waited. I waited because I didn’t want to lie about who I was. I wanted her to know the truth before anything else.So I waited, and I did my job. For years, I protected her, biding my time, until the day she went into the Nevernever after her brother. And then youcame along. And I saw how she looked at you. And for the first time, I wanted to kill you as much as you wanted to kill me.” - Julie Kagawa

45. “Revenge is an infection of the spirit.” - Jonathan Maberry

46. “Revenge is like sex, Mister Dresden. It's best when it comes on slow, quiet, until it all seems inexorable.” - Jim Butcher

47. “For some offenses, there is only retribution." Nora Hawks, "One Woman's Vengeance.” - Dennis R. Miller

48. “Two wrongs don't make a right, but neither does one. Revenge may seem petty by day, but on some nights she becomes Justice.” - Ashly Lorenzana

49. “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

50. “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

51. “There is nothing wrong with revenge. The wrong has already been done, or there would be no need to even the score.” - Ashly Lorenzana

52. “Grudges are for those who insist that they are owed something; forgiveness, however, is for those who are substantial enough to move on.” - Criss Jami

53. “When it comes to world news, attitude is what marks the distinction between justice and vengeance. Justice is pure, but vengeance brings more ruin.” - Criss Jami

54. “Revenge is a dish best served published!” - Lisa Kovanda

55. “Once bitten twice shy? Sure, but... why not get a bigger dog and bite them back?” - A.A. Bell

56. “The justice I have received, I shall give back.” - Patricia Highsmith

57. “May the fleas of a thousand camels invade the crotch of the person that ruins your day. And may their arms be to short too scratch” - Keisha Keenleyside

58. “Revenge is what I want. Nothing but pure unadulterated revenge. But my mother brought me up to be a lady.” - J.P. Donleavy

59. “Deep inside her (ih her harrowed soul) she felt a glowing ember of fury at the man responsible for this. Tha man who had put her in this position. She looked at the pistol lying beside the basin, and knew that if he were here, she would use it on him without a moment's hesitation. Knowing that made her feel confused about herself. It also made her feel a little stronger.” - Stephen King

60. “Wendy is still dead. I hadn't understood before: it really doesn't bring them back. Somehow, you think, despite what you know, it will be a trade. Find the person who did the wrong thing and they will suffer instead of the one who was killed. Instead, that person just suffers too.” - Mariah Fredericks

61. “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

62. “For maybe the first time he could remember, he was very seriously thinking about how to best kill someone he’d never even seen.” - Yukako Kabei

63. “It was one lesson he never forgot.You don't sit back when you or a loved one is being assaulted.And you don't act like the goverment with their "proportional responses" and all that nonsense.If someone hurts you,mercy and pity must be put aside,You eliminate the enemy.You scorch the earth.” - Harlan Coben

64. “The only way to gall and fret effectively is for yourself to be a good and honest man.” - Diogenes

65. “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

66. “They say the only way you can truly kill a Celestra is by fire. I would gladly lend myself to the flames to peer down eternally over this sinful disgrace of a planet that houses cowards such as these.” - Addison Moore

67. “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

68. “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

69. “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

70. “Only remember this: to seek justice is a good and noble thing, to seek revenge out of hatred is something that wiil devour your very soul.” - James Mace

71. “Your cunning has proved to be that of Cain. I grant you power over the Hellmouth. May Samael take my revenge." The thing said with a bitter look and a voice that seemed to be many.” - Georgina Morales

72. “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

73. “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

74. “Two things you should never do in a hurry: make up and revenge.” - Iveta Cherneva

75. “The only way to truly be safer, was to accept the dark, to walk in it with eyes wide open, to be a part of it. To keep your enemies close.” - CJ Roberts

76. “Often those that criticise others reveal what he himself lacks.” - Shannon L. Alder

77. “I chose not to fight it. Eating them...is my revenge.” - J.H. Myn

78. “I've been in the revenge buisness for so long, now that it's over I don't know what to do with the rest of my life.” - William Goldman

79. “Shall each man," cried he, "find a wife for his bosom, and each beast have his mate, and I be alone? I had feelings of affection, and they were requited by detestation and scorn. Man! You may hate, but beware! Your hours will pass in dread and misery, and soon the bolt will fall which must ravish from you your happiness forever. Are you to be happy while I grovel in the intensity of my wretchedness? You can blast my other passions, but revenge remains—revenge, henceforth dearer than light or food! I may die, but first you, my tyrant and tormentor, shall curse the sun that gazes on your misery. Beware, for I am fearless and therefore powerful. I will watch with the wiliness of a snake, that I may sting with its venom. Man, you shall repent of the injuries you inflict.” - Mary Shelley

80. “Vendetta is the word, except it isn't strong enough.” - Sister Souljah

81. “Mary Fisher lives in a High Tower, on the edge of the sea: she writes a great deal about the nature of love. She tells lies.” - Faye Weldon

82. “As for Iago’s jealousy, one cannot believe that a seriously jealous man could behave towards his wife as Iago behaves towards Emilia, for the wife of a jealous husband is the first person to suffer. Not only is the relation of Iago and Emilia, as we see it on stage, without emotional tension, but also Emilia openly refers to a rumor of her infidelity as something already disposed of.Some such squire it wasThat turned your wit, the seamy side withoutAnd made you to suspect me with the Moor.At one point Iago states that, in order to revenge himself on Othello, he will not rest till he is even with him, wife for wife, but, in the play, no attempt at Desdemona’s seduction is made. Iago does not encourage Cassio to make one, and he even prevents Roderigo from getting anywhere near her.Finally, one who seriously desires personal revenge desires to reveal himself. The revenger’s greatest satisfaction is to be able to tell his victim to his face – "You thought you were all-powerful and untouchable and could injure me with impunity. Now you see that you were wrong. Perhaps you have forgotten what you did; let me have the pleasure of reminding you."When at the end of the play, Othello asks Iago in bewilderment why he has thus ensnared his soul and body, if his real motive were revenge for having been cuckolded or unjustly denied promotion, he could have said so, instead of refusing to explain.” - W.H. Auden

83. “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

84. “No matter what you say, or how much you talk, someone isn’t really forgiven until you can stand beside them without wanting to slap them in the face.” - Alan Heathcock

85. “The only reason I haven't shot you yet is because he's the one who should get to do it," I say. "Stay away from him or I'll decide I no longer care.” - Veronica Roth

86. “Most victories are, in the best way, acts of revenge.” - Alain De Botton

87. “Still smiling she carried the TV through the doorway; then she gave it the strongest heave she could manage... When it hit Alan's oversized brick barbecue and the glass front of the TV smashed, Leslie didn't think she'd ever heard a more satisfying sound.” - Jude Deveraux

88. “Revenge was sweet, but blood was sweeter.” - Nadège Richards

89. “Concealing himself from his father's wrath, behind the barn with wick turned low and his face two inches from the rough sawtooth page, Young Crawford had read of these atrocities in Beadle's Dime Library and fantasized about "calling out" the brutal old man who had sired him, "throwing down" on him with the "hogleg" he wore high on his hip, and blasting him into hell; after which he would go "on the scout," separating high-interest banks and arrogant railroad barons from their soiled coin and distributing it among their victims, or failing that into his own pockets and saddle pouches and living the "high Life" in saloons and "dance halls" where beautiful women in brief costumes admired his straight legs and square jaw and told him of the men who had "ruined" them (he knew not just how, only that the act was disgraceful and its effects permanent), whereupon he sought the blackguards out and deprived them of their lives. There was usually profit involved; invariably the men were thieves who lived in close proximity to their "ill-gotten booty," and didn't it say somewhere in Scripture that robbing a thief was no sin? If it didn't, it should have.” - Loren D. Estleman

90. “Insecure people only eclipse your sun because they’re jealous of your daylight and tired of their dark, starless nights.” - Shannon L. Alder

91. “Out there was a man who had murdered his daughter. And another who had stepped on her heart. His hatred should be aimed at the one who killed her, but all he could picture was Yoshino being literally kicked out of that car.” - Shuichi Yoshida

92. “But life wasn't a fairy tale, and I had no problem doing what was necessary to get what I wanted, even if it meant playing dirty.” - Michelle Madow

93. “Simply put, the best revenge is to live an awesome life.” - Ramon Bautista

94. “I started to crawl off; then I remembered my leftover pizza, and I peeled off the salami, pepperoni, and anchovies and placed them on the CD tray (whicn no one used these days with flash drives around)on Boone's computer. I hit the close button and watched the smelly part of my delicious dinner slide away. Boone would have a great time wondering 'where's that smell coming from?” - Duffy Brown

95. “Oh, how I longed to burst through the doors and go walking through the streets, with my hands open, like weapons!” - Marcel Béalu

96. “Amy! My God! My God! My darling!' and buried my face in her neck, my arms wrapped tight around her, and let the cameras get their fifteen seconds, and I whispered deep inside her ear, 'You fucking bitch.” - Gillian Flynn

97. “Storytelling? God started that. Discovery. Lust. Murder. Revenge. Power. Sin. Redemption. Forgiveness. Miracles. We simply retell the stories in the language of our generation.” - Dennis R. Miller

98. “Revenge is never pretty and often leaves you empty.--Alexandria "Dria" McAndrews” - C.J. Ellisson