“Bitterness is the coward's revenge on the world for having been hurt.”

—  Zora Neale Hurston

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Bitterness is the coward's revenge on the world for having been hurt." by Zora Neale Hurston?
Zora Neale Hurston photo
Zora Neale Hurston 74
American folklorist, novelist, short story writer 1891–1960

Related quotes

George Bernard Shaw photo

“Hatred is the coward's revenge for being intimidated.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright
Francis Bacon photo

“Some, when they take revenge, are desirous, the party should know, whence it cometh. This is the more generous. For the delight seemeth to be, not so much in doing the hurt, as in making the party repent. But base and crafty cowards, are like the arrow that flieth in the dark.”

Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and author

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1857), Revenge

Terry Brooks photo

“Hurt leads to bitterness, bitterness to anger. Travel too far that road and the way is lost.”

Terry Brooks book The Elfstones of Shannara

Source: The Elfstones of Shannara

Cassandra Clare photo

“Unfortunately, we're all out of bitter revenge at the moment, so it's either tea or nothing.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Hodge and Clary, pg. 75
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Bones (2007)
Context: "Is there anything I could get for you?" he asked. "Something to drink? Some tea?"
"I don't want tea," said Clary, with a muffled force. "I want to find my mother. And then I want to find out who took her in the first place, and I want to kill them."
"Unfortunately," said Hodge, "we're all out of bitter revenge at the moment, so it's either tea or nothing."

Madonna photo

“We learn our lessons; we get hurt; we want revenge. Then we realize that actually, happiness and forgiving people is the best revenge.”

Madonna (1958) American singer, songwriter, and actress
Lucy Maud Montgomery photo

“She found, however, that revenge hurts nobody quite so much as the one who tries to inflict it.”

Lucy Maud Montgomery book Anne of the Island

Source: Anne of the Island (1915), Ch. 2

Girolamo Cardano photo

“From these beginnings, as it were, have issued bitterness, contentious obstinancy, lack of amenity, hasty judgement, anger, and an intense desire for revenge—to say nothing of headstrong will; that which many damn, by word at least, was my delight.”

Girolamo Cardano (1501–1576) Italian Renaissance mathematician, physician, astrologer

Source: The Book of My Life (1930), Ch. 13 Customs, Vices and Errors

“The revolt was the sepoy; the revolution would have been the people; the revolt was revenge; the revolution would have been the Idea; the revolt was the cruel Vishnu; the revolution would have been the mild Shiva.”

Francisco Luís Gomes (1829–1869) Indo-Portuguese physician, writer, historian, economist, political scientist and MP in the Portuguese parli…

Os Brâmanes, p. 147
Os Brâmanes (1866)

“It is fashionable to present hate and contempt for humanity as the exasperation and despair of compassion, but in that case rebellion should be against existence itself. When a man who is horrified by the basic evil of the world and his own existence, and who sees no God to rebel against, takes revenge on his fellow beings, he is a coward and a hypocrite. Perhaps the ugly, sordid, and horrifying things of which there is no end have always been produced by hypocritical and cowardly rebellion against existence, but that is not the rebellion of the social anarchist.”

Giovanni Baldelli (1914–1986) Anarchist theorist

Source: Social Anarchism (1971), p. 7

Related topics