Naomie Harris Quotes

I do not believe in loving enemies; I have pretty hard work to love my friends. Neither do I believe in revenge. No man can afford to keep the viper of revenge in his heart. But I believe in justice, in self-defense.

I don't know why we choose to reach out to help another person, or why we decide that we can't, and withdraw and try to care only for ourselves, but I'm fascinated by that choice.

All Creatures know that some must die That all the rest may take and eat; Sooner or later, all transform Their blood to wine, their flesh to meat. But Man alone seeks Vengefulness, And writes his abstract Laws on stone; For this false Justice he has made, He tortures limb and crushes bone. Is this the image of a god? My tooth for yours, your eye for mine? Oh, if Revenge did move the stars Instead of Love, they would not shine.

An eye for an eye leaves everybody blind.

A small revenge is more human than no revenge at all.

A readiness to resent injuries is a virtue only in those who are slow to injure.

I don't think vengeance is much good.

'Tis better to suffer wrong than do it.

We are taught that revenge is strong and compassion is weak. We are taught that power is more important than love.

I once tried to write a novel about revenge. It's the only book I didn't finish. I couldn't get into the mind of the person who was plotting vengeance.

The thirst for vengeance is a very real, even if a hideous, thing; and states may not ignore it till humanity has been raised to greater heights than any that have yet been scaled in all the long ages of struggle and ascent.

An eye for any eye makes the whole world blind.

Some day we may be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our children, but we will never forgive them for making us kill some of theirs.

I even opposed the death penalty for the man who killed my brother .

Justice is inextricably linked to revenge, which is both morally right and a deeply internalized instinct as innate to man as breathing, having sex, falling in love, and making war.

Too often, we think that, when we have a problem with our lives or our country, that the way to fix it is to take an eye for an eye. That doesn't help anything or anyone.

Whoever feels mercy for the cruel is bound to eventually be cruel to the merciful.

I don't wish jail on nobody, not even my worst enemies.

The potential beauty of human life is constantly made ugly by man's ever recurring song of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever rising tides of revenge. Man has never risen above the injunction of the lex talionis: "Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot." In spite of the fact that the law of revenge solves no social problems, men continue to follow its disastrous leading. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path.

I wonder why it is the man who pleads for mercy never gives it.

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

We can forgive you for killing our children, but we can never forgive you for making us kill your children.

In spiritual maturity, the opposite of injustice is not justice but compassion.

there is no glory in punishing

Justice is not Healing. Healing cometh only by suffering and patience, and maketh no demand, not even for Justice. Justice worketh only within the bonds of things as they are... and therefore though Justice is itself good and desireth no further evil, it can but perpetuate the evil that was, and doth not prevent it from the bearing of fruit in sorrow.