Retribution Quotes

• Disease is the retribution of outraged Nature.

  Hosea Ballou

  Nature, Health, Medicine

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• If an offender has committed murder, he must die. In this case, no possible substitute can satisfy justice. For there is no parallel between death and even the most miserable life, so that there is no equality of crime and retribution unless the perpetrator is judicially put to death.

  Immanuel Kant

  Justice, Murder, Miserable

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• Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small; Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds He all.

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Patience, Justice, Waiting

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, J. D. McClatchy (2000). “Poems and Other Writings”, p.697, Library of America

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• To declare that in the administration of criminal law the end justifies the means to declare that the Government may commit crimes in order to secure conviction of a private criminal would bring terrible retribution.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Mean, Government, Order

  Olmstead v. United States (dissenting opinion) (1928)

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• Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.

  John Locke

  Men, Blood, Criminal Mind

  John Locke (1821). “Two treatises of government”, p.196

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• Retribution often means that we eventually do to ourselves what we have done unto others.

  Eric Hoffer

  Mean, Done, Vengeance

  "Thoughts of Eric Hoffer, Including: 'Absolute Faith Corrupts Absolutely'" by Eric Hoffer, The New York Times Magazine (p. 57), April 25, 1971.

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• Heaven often regulates effects by their causes, and pays the wicked what they have deserved.

  Pierre Corneille

  Heaven, Wicked, Pay

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• The forces of retribution are always listening. They never sleep.

  Meg Greenfield

  Sleep, Listening, Talking Too Much

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• Justice can span years. Retribution is not subject to a calendar.

  Rod Serling

  Years, Justice, Calendars

  "Fictional character: Narrator". TV Series "The Twilight Zone" ("Execution", 1960), www.imdb.com. 1959–1964.

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• Heaven never defaults. The wicked are sure of their wages, sooner or later.

  Edwin Hubbel Chapin

  Heaven, Wicked, Wages

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• You may do as you wish without fear of retribution. It may serve you, however, to be aware of consequences. Consequences are results. Natural outcomes. These are not at all the same as retributions, or punishments. Outcomes are simply that. They are what results from the natural application of natural laws. They are that which occurs, quite predictably, as a consequence of what has occurred.

  Neale Donald Walsch

  Law, Punishment, Wish

  "Conversations With God: Book One". Book by Neale Donald Walsch, January 22, 2009.

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• There is no satisfaction in vengeance unless the offender has time to realize who it is that strikes him, and why retribution has come upon him.

  Arthur Conan Doyle

  Satisfaction, Vengeance, Realizing

  Arthur Conan Doyle (2003). “A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four”, p.82, Courier Corporation

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• Vengeance and retribution require a long time; it is the rule.

  Charles Dickens

  Long, Vengeance, Tale Of Two Cities

  Charles Dickens (2015). “British Classics: A Tale of Two Cities (Illustrated)”, p.150, The Planet

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• There is such a thing as tempting the gods. Talking too much, too soon and with too much self-satisfaction has always seemed to me a sure way to court disaster. The forces of retribution are always listening. They never sleep.

  Meg Greenfield

  Sleep, Self, Talking

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• No friend ever served me, and no enemy ever wronged me, whom I have not repaid in full.

  Sulla

  Thankful, Revenge, Enemy

  Epitaph he made for himself. "Heroes of History: A Brief History of Civilization from Ancient Times to the Dawn of the Modern Age". Book by Will Durant, 2001.

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• God gives each his due at the time allotted.

  Euripides

  Giving, Dues

  Euripides (2012). “Ten Plays by Euripides”, p.267, Bantam Classics

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• There are some duties we owe even to those who have wronged us. There is, after all, a limit to retribution and punishment.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Punishment, Limits, Duty

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• Retribution is tricky. . . . The insult isn't usually worth the risk of punishment. And eventually one learns that karma has a surprising way of taking care of these situations. All you have to do is sit back and watch.

  Candace Bushnell

  Karma, Punishment, Risk

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• You will achieve more in this world through acts of mercy than you will through acts of retribution.

  Nelson Mandela

  Inspiring, Leadership, Forgiveness

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• Revenge be the dish I serve to cats cold.

  The Notorious B.I.G.

  Revenge, Cat, Cold

  Song: Dangerous Mc's, Album: Born Again, 1999

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• THE thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge. You, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that gave utterance to a threat. At length I would be avenged; this was a point definitely, settled --but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved precluded the idea of risk. I must not only punish but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong.

  Edgar Allan Poe

  Revenge, Ideas, Soul

  Edgar Allan Poe (1984). “Poetry and Tales”, p.848, Library of America

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• The noblest kind of retribution is not to become like your enemy.

  Marcus Aurelius

  Words Of Wisdom, Enemy, Kind

  Marcus Aurelius (2009). “Meditations”, p.35, Everyman's Library

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• there is a law of retribution in all things, direct or indirect, visible or invisible.

  Miles Franklin

  Law, Invisible, Indirect

  Miles Franklin (2014). “Some Everyday Folk and Dawn”, p.105, Simon and Schuster

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• Artists speak the truth to the public without fear of retribution or damage to their careers.

  Ron Silver

  Artist, Careers, Damage

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• If George W. Bush is given a second term, and retains a Republican Congress and a compliant federal judiciary, he and his allies are likely to embark on a campaign of political retribution the likes of which we haven't seen since Richard Nixon.

  Paul Begala

  Political, Campaigns, Likes

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