“2320. Trust not an Enemy, because thou hast done him good Offices: for Men are naturally more prone to revenge Injuries, than to requite Kindnesses.”

Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727)

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British physician, preacher, and intellectual 1654–1734

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“3389. Men are more prone to revengeInjuries, than to requite Kindnesses.”

Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual

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“Upon this, one has to remark that men ought either to be well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot; therefore the injury that is to be done to a man ought to be of such a kind that one does not stand in fear of revenge.”

Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 3; Variant translation: Never do any enemy a small injury for they are like a snake which is half beaten and it will strike back the first chance it gets.

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“The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.”

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“Oh, Diamond! Diamond! thou little knowest what mischief thou hast done!”

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This is from an anecdote found in St. Nicholas magazine, Vol. 5, No. 4, (February 1878) http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15331/15331-h/15331-h.htm :
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“This seems to me a thing to be noticed, that just as the men of this country are, during this mortal life, more prone to anger and revenge than any other race, so in eternal death the saints of this land, that have been elevated by their merits, are more vindictive than the saints of any other region.”
Hoc autem mihi notabile videtur, quod sicut nationis istius homines hac in vita mortali prae aliis gentibus impatientes et praecipites sunt ad vindictam, sic et in morte vitali meritis jam excelsi, prae aliarum regionum sanctis, animi vindicis esse videntur.

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Topographia Hibernica Part 2, chapter 55 (83); translation from Gerald of Wales (trans. John J. O'Meara) The History and Topography of Ireland ([1951] 1982) p. 91. (1188).

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