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The rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance.
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“The rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance.”

William Shakespeare

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Source
The Tempest
Date
c. 1611
Local voice
Fictional character · Prospero
Meaning

Meaning of “The rarer action is in virtue than in…”

Prospero chooses deliberate mercy over retaliation, presenting forgiveness not as weakness but as the more difficult exercise of reason and character.

Source context

Where does it come from?

The Tempest, Act 5, Scene 1; Prospero decides against vengeance after considering the suffering of his enemies.

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Speaker context

Why the local voice matters

Prospero says this in The Tempest, Act 5, Scene 1, while deciding to abandon vengeance.

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Themes

Ideas connected with this quotation

AngerCompassionDiscipline Quotes About Habits, Practice & ConsistencyForgivenessLetting Go Quotes About Release & Moving ForwardMoving OnPatiencePeaceSelf-Control Quotes About Restraint & JudgmentShortWisdom Quotes About Judgment & Living WellLife Goes OnVirtue
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Source identified
Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath.
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“Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath.”

Paul the Apostle · King James Bible — Romans 12:19 · 1611
Meaning & context

The instruction interrupts retaliation by asking people not to make personal revenge their response to injury, creating room for restraint and release.

Source details

Romans 12:19, King James Version; Paul tells readers not to avenge themselves within a larger sequence about responding to enemies and evil.

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If he trespass against thee seven times in a day ... thou shalt forgive him.
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“If he trespass against thee seven times in a day ... thou shalt forgive him.”

Jesus · King James Bible — Luke 17:4 · 1611
Voice: Reported speaker · Jesus
Meaning & context

Repeated offence makes forgiveness harder, which is exactly the point of the passage: the moral demand is not limited to the first easy opportunity to forgive.

Source details

Luke 17:4 in the King James Version; the middle repetition is shortened with an ellipsis while preserving the verse’s instruction.

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In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior.
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“In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior.”

Francis Bacon · Of Revenge · 1625
Meaning & context

Bacon argues that retaliation merely mirrors the wrong, whereas refusing revenge can restore agency by ending the cycle instead of remaining governed by the injury.

Source details

Francis Bacon, essay IV ‘Of Revenge,’ represented by Project Gutenberg #575. The frozen catalog sentence capitalizes the extracted opening ‘In’ and ends after ‘superior’; the witness reads it inside the longer sentence beginning ‘Certainly, in taking revenge...’ and continuing ‘for it is a prince's part to pardon.’ It remains early-modern moral and legal-political essay argument rather than modern clinical anger guidance.

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How far better is it to heal an injury than to avenge it?
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“How far better is it to heal an injury than to avenge it?”

Seneca · Of Anger, Book III · c. 45
Meaning & context

The question contrasts repair with retaliation: vengeance keeps attention fixed on the original wound, whereas healing aims to end the chain of injury rather than reproduce it.

Source details

On Anger, Book III, section XXVII, Aubrey Stewart’s 1889 translation in Minor Dialogues Together with the Dialogue on Clemency, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #64576 and the complete Wikisource Book III transcription. “How far better is it to heal an injury than to avenge it?” opens section XXVII on printed page 146, immediately introducing Seneca’s argument that revenge prolongs and multiplies injury. The passage remains historical Stoic moral philosophy rather than a clinical claim about trauma or treatment.

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