Revenge or vengeance consists primarily of retaliation against a person or group in response to perceived wrongdoing. Although many aspects of revenge resemble or echo the concept of justice, revenge usually has a more injurious than harmonious goal. The vengeful wish consists of forcing the perceived wrongdoer to suffer the same pain that they inflicted in the first place, or of making sure that the wrongdoer can never inflict such an injury upon anyone else.

Revenge is the fire that consumes without compunction or mercy. No one is safe from one with vengeance in his heart. What can be done to a foe who cares nothing for himself, whose sole purpose in breathing is to create pain in your life? C.Allison

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• Beware: "In revenge and in love woman is more barbarous than man."
  • (Nietzsche), Beyond Good and Evil (1885–1886)

• Somebody once wrote, "Revenge is a dish that has to be eaten cold." Hot as you are, you're liable to end up with indigestion.
  • Ryan (Lee Van Cleef), Death Rides a Horse (Da uomo a uomo) (1968)

• The desire for revenge keeps one's wounds open.
  • Leonid S. Sukhorukov, All About Everything (2005)

• The way of revenge lies in simply forcing ones way into a place and being cut down. There is no shame in this. By thinking that you must complete the job you will run out of time. By considering things like how many men the enemy has, time piles up; in the end you will give up. No matter if the enemy has thousands of men, there is fulfillment in simply standing them off and being determined to cut them all down, starting from one end. You will finish the greater part of it.
  • Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure (1710–1716)

• The sixth precept of the natural law is, that in revenge and punishments we must have our eye not at the evil past, but the future good: that is, it is not lawful to inflict punishment for any other end, but that the offender may be corrected, or that others warned by his punishment may become better. But this is confirmed chiefly from hence, that each man is bound by the law of nature to forgive one another, provided he give caution for the future, as hath been showed in the foregoing article. Furthermore, because revenge, if the time past be only considered, is nothing else but a certain triumph and glory of mind, which points at no end (for it contemplates only what is past, but the end is a thing to come), but that which is directed to no end, is vain: that revenge therefore which regards not the future, proceeds from vain glory, and therefore without reason. But to hurt another without reason introduces a war, and is contrary to the fundamental law of nature. It is therefore a precept of the law of nature, that in revenge we look not backwards, but forward. Now the breach of this law is commonly called CRUELTY.
  • Thomas Hobbes, De Cive, ch.3, sec. 11

• "Crom, I have never prayed to you before, I have no tongue for it. No one, not even you, will remember if we were good men or bad, why we fought or how we died. No, all that matters, is that few stood against many. That's what's important. Valor pleases you, Crom, so grant me one request: grant me revenge! And if you do not listen, then to hell with you!"
  • Conan, Conan the Barbarian (1982).

• "There is an old Klingon proverb, "Revenge is a dish best served cold"...and it is very cold, in space..."
  • Khan, Star Trek II:The Wrath of Khan

• "Revenge is the prime ingredient in the fountain of youth."
  • Clockwerk, Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus

• "Revenge is like a poison. It can take you over, before you know it, it had turn you into something ugly."
  • Aunt Mary, Spider-man 3

• "If you wish for revenge, an equally hard blow will be dealt back to yourself."
  • Yūko Ichihara, xxxHOLIC

• "In certain, extreme situations, the law is inadequate. In order to shame its inadequacy, it is necessary to act outside the law. To pursue - natural justice. This is not vengeance. Revenge is not a valid motive, it's an emotional response. No, not vengeance. Punishment."
  • Frank Castle, The Punisher

• Do you who are a Christian desire to be revenged and vindicated, and the death of Jesus Christ has not yet been revenged, nor His innocence vindicated?
  • Augustine of Hippo, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 520.

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• Living well is the best revenge.
  • George Herbert

• Revenge is the fire that consumes without compunction or conscience. Nobody is safe from a man with revenge in his eyes and rage enshrouding his heart.
  • C. Allison

• Before you embark upon a journey of revenge, you should first dig two graves.
  • Confucius

• Revenge is a dish that tastes best when it is cold.
  • Mario Puzo, The Godfather