Psychologists say that you can’t carry a grudge in yourself for a long time. The sense of injustice that a person experiences when someone does not see his achievements, does not value merit, appropriates his work, has a devastating effect on his health. Especially dangerous is the condition of those who were betrayed by loved ones, from whom the beloved had left, who, due to other people's treachery, had remained with nothing. People who have destroyed or badly spoiled a person’s life themselves continue to live and enjoy life. And then the idea of punishing the offender is born. Quotes about revenge from the works of Russian and foreign authors, from memoirs of famous people show how differently in different cultures and in different historical periods they related to the realization of the ability to pay evil for the evil done.
"An eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth"
Since ancient times, people have thought about whether or not they have the right to pronounce the verdict on the guilty and independently adjudicate. The thirst for justice pushed many worthy people on the path of crime, forced them to bear plans for bloody revenge. Since the Old Testament times, the principle of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” has long been guiding even among peoples who subsequently adopted Christianity, and it is not necessary to talk about pagans: only those who considered blow to blow were considered strong in those days.
When a civilized society has not yet taken shape, in the system of values of the patriarchy, where the man was at the head, his strength, in particular, was measured by his ability to stand up for himself in the fight against the offender. His image as a fighter, warrior, defender of the interests of the clan could have suffered significantly when he did not punish the offender. For some peoples, whose development is at a primitive level, the laws of bloody revenge are still in effect. In a civilized society, only representatives of certain subcultures and countercultures continue to desperately defend the right to this rudiment. For cultures that are based on affirming agonal principles, revenge has always been justified. So in the works of German authors, there are often images of noble avengers - people who restore justice with weapons in their hands.
In the novel The Mature Years of King Henry IV, Heinrich Mann wrote:
Enemies need revenge: everyone is waiting for this, without this it is impossible. To those who do not take revenge, there is no respect.
Taste of victory
Quotes about revenge reflect the tendency that manifests itself in the thoughts of great authors, to find a way to repay the desire to settle scores. The main alternative to revenge is called forgiveness, which although many authors look noble and righteous, still the taste is somewhat bland. Unfortunately, the forgiveness of the offender does not compare with the pleasure that one receives who in some way was able to defeat his enemy. Therefore, revenge is called sweet, compared with a gourmet dish. The avenger is likened to a gourmet who conjures over its preparation, mixing in advance all the ingredients of the coming fiasco of his enemy. The sin that a person in this case takes to the soul is justified. The sinner, realizing that he has committed a crime by punishing the offender, often begins to be tormented by remorse when the hop of victory passes, trying to atone for this sin.
How I hate you ...
Quotes about revenge and hatred reflect a causal relationship between a person’s inner experiences and the actions they lead to. Hatred is a fire that burns a person from within, which instills in him at the moment when it is discovered that some evil has been committed against him. The only chance to extinguish this fire is to destroy the source of evil. This does not have to be physical destruction: not everyone is ready to go to crime. But to humiliate, trample in the mud, destroy reputation resources - many dream of it. And you can, as in E. Asadov’s poem, just stay close to the object of your negative feeling, thereby ruining the life of not only yourself, but also him:
- I hate my husband!
“Well, so get away from him soon.”
- Of course, leaving is easy. But then
He will be happy right away. Never!
"Mouse tears will pour out to a cat"
Representatives of the weaker sex are particularly sophisticated. Quotes about the revenge of women demonstrate how elegantly and beautifully they punish someone who did not appreciate, did not understand their happiness - an insidious cheater. Sometimes, as in a famous song, for revenge, not sparing my own life, but more often at all costs trying to show that you can be happy without it. The female "otvetka" is rarely spontaneous, rather, it can fly through the years in the form of a "knife in the back." But, starting with Princess Olga, women demonstrate more violent forms of revenge when it comes to settling accounts with offenders of relatives and friends.
Victim syndrome
Sayings reflect such a curious psychological nuance: many people do not dare to take revenge not out of nobility and not out of fear of being punished. The syndrome of the victim is quite common among modern people: a person experiences painful pleasure, relishing his experiences and telling everyone what offenses were inflicted on him.
Avenging an insult means depriving ourselves of the pleasure that afflicts us with complaints of injustice (Cesare Pavese).
Resistance to Evil by Violence
The New Testament morality, based on the idea of non-resistance to evil by violence, redistributed the choice in the dispute between revenge on the offender and forgiveness in favor of the latter. In the era of the new era, Leo Tolstoy becomes the most serious defender of this ideology. It was he who persistently advocated the refusal of retaliation, insisted that the sphere of competence of a person does not include the punishment of those responsible: for this, God exists. That is why for the novel “Anna Karenina," he chose the epigraph “To me vengeance I will repay” (Rom. 12:19).
"Do not make enemies - do not clog the river"
When Tolstoy created his new religion, he found points of intersection with ideas close to him in Eastern teachings. In Taoism and Confucianism, one can find many quotes about revenge, which should be abandoned, since there is a higher court that will punish the guilty and show the victim that retribution overtook the offender.
Eastern wisdom says:
If someone has done you harm, do not take revenge. Sit on the bank of the river, and soon you will see how the corpse of your enemy swims past you.
Resentment as an incentive to self-development
The word "revenge" usually causes quite gloomy associations, especially when it comes to the revenge of a deceived woman. Although deception and betrayal can equally cause both the destruction of one’s own life on the path to destroying the enemy, and its qualitative improvement. It is no coincidence that John Maxwell said that "your life is 10% dependent on what is happening to you, and 90% on how you react to these events." To spite enemies, one can become better, more beautiful, more successful, in other words, for many women it was the thirst for revenge that became the incentive for self-development.
A classic example of such an option of “not bloody revenge” can be the realization of Toska Kislitsyna’s dream, the heroine of the beloved by many cult Soviet film “Girls”:
So you want to be beautiful! I would then have avenged all the deceived girls! Here I am walking beautiful along the street, and all the oncoming guys become stiff, and those who are weaker - they fall, fall, fall, and stack themselves in stacks!
Eh, life is my tin!
The offender can be not only a specific person, but also life as a whole. When circumstances are not in favor of a person, he may become embittered throughout the world, may begin to take revenge on everything around him, destroying everything in his path. Or maybe, like a woman, humiliated and insulted, try to get off her knees and begin to take revenge, proving that she deserves a better life. And then the implementation of revenge will be new peaks, which will be able to climb. It was about this revenge that Frank Sinatra said:
The best revenge is tremendous success.
This sweet revenge
There are practically none among domestic authors who would approve of a thirst for revenge, regardless of what was the root cause of its appearance. No cruelty and no injustice, according to the Russian classics, justifies the transformation of man into an avenger.
Among European writers there are quite a lot of those who, with different reservations, recognize the human right to revenge. The most striking quotes about revenge, which amaze the reader’s imagination with metaphors that translate the abstract concept of “revenge” into specific, memorable images, are written by Walter Scott:
Vengeance is the best of all earthly drinks, and it should be savored a bit, not swallowed with greed in one gulp.
Revenge is a hungry wolf who is just waiting to tear apart living flesh and lap up blood.
Vengeance must be sweet if many respectable and prudent men prefer it to all other pleasures available to the poor sinners of this world.
And the brothers will give you the sword ...
For many authors, it is obvious that, starting to take revenge, a person launches a mechanism that acts according to the boomerang principle. First he will avenge, then they will avenge him, then they can begin to avenge him. If the brothers do not give up the sword, the chain of evil does not stop, and the avenger himself can fall in this struggle. In any case, revenge is just as destructive for the one who takes revenge, as well as for the one who takes revenge.
As Stendhal said, "the avenger always pays for his revenge."