Source: Perfect
“Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.”
Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher
Attributed in Lillet Walters (2000), Secrets of Superstar Speakers; attributed in English sources as a "Japanese proverb" as early as 1924
Misattributed, Not Chinese
“The man who seeks revenge digs two graves.”
Ken Kesey (1935–2001) novelist
“The grave will fall in upon him who digs it.”
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), XIX Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.
Clemantine Wamariya (1988) Rwandan-American activist and author
On her book The Girl Who Smiled Beads in “A Conversation with Clemantine Wamariya https://www.readitforward.com/author-interview/clemantine-wamariya/” in Read it Forward (2017)
“Whoever finishes a revolution only halfway, digs his own grave.”
Act I.
Dantons Tod (Danton's Death) (1835)
Stanisław Jerzy Lec (1909–1966) Polish writer
"He who had dug his own grave", from To Abel and Cain, commemorating his escape from the Nazis by his 1943 killing of an SS guard who had been assigned to watch as he dug his own grave, as quoted in "10 Amazing Ways People Survived The Holocaust" by Alan Boyle at Listverse (9 November 2014) http://listverse.com/2014/11/09/10-amazing-ways-people-survived-the-holocaust/
“In his heart, Simon Yakida knew he was digging his own grave.”
Nick Turse (1975) American writer
Ghost Nation: An Ethnic Cleansing Campaign by the Government Threatens to Empty South Sudan https://harpers.org/archive/2017/07/ghost-nation/ , July 2017
“Any actress who appears in public without being well-groomed is digging her own grave.”
Joan Crawford (1904–1977) American actress
